Visiting Caves in the Dordogne

The Font du Gaume is the real deal. The methods for getting the few available tickets vary from time to time, but find out what they are now and book as soon as you can. The recreation at Lascaux are also a must -- They look precisely as the pictures looked originally and were recreated with original techniques and pigments.

there are few tours to the Font du Gaume in English and each group is only about 10. If you can only get a French tour take it and read up. It is the seeing not the talking. Peche Merle also has some original paintings including the famous spotted horses, but in my opinion is not very interesting beyond that compared to the others. It is a beautiful cave geologically but the art is less interesting than Font du Gaume. Roffignac is fun; you take a train undergrounds to see drawings. They are drawings not polychrome paintings but there are interesting portrayals of mastadons -- and they have the best sourvenir t-shirts FWIW.

If for some reason you're unable to reserve a visit to a cave, be aware that the Musée d'Aquitaine in Bordeaux has an exhibit with a video produced by a drone flight through several different caves with a variety of different cave art styles. I found my desire to see "actual cave art" was satisfied by this exhibit; others might not have the same reaction, but regardless it's great.

We’ve visited both caves with original drawings and reproductions. I learned something in each, but I learned the most about how the prehistoric artists created their works at Lascaux. I wouldn’t skip a reproduction.
Rouffignac is fascinating not only for its extensive drawings but also for its history of bear habitat.

We found a 1-1/2 hour visit to the Musee de la Pre-histoire in Les Eyzies enhanced our appreciation of the lives and times of Cro-Magnon people. https://musee-prehistoire-eyzies.fr/. There were many artifacts - bone tools and skeletons of extinct animals - that told how the people hunted, fished and lived. Lovely, modest sized museum. Les Eyzies is the town a mile or two from Font du Gaume.

We biked right past Le Roque St Christophe, on the road between Les Eyzies and Montignac (the town near Lascaux), but failed to stop at that Troglodyte dwelling site. Since you will have a car, you might want to see if that is a good site to include on your trip along the Vezere.

I really liked 2 things about Pech Merle! The fossilized human foot print really affected me. Somehow that really connected with me even more than the negative outlines of hand prints. The other thing is that I live in the area where the Nez Perce bred/breed the Appaloosa Horse so to see the "leopard spotting" on horses depicted 25,000 years ago kind of blew me away. I thought it was very interesting.

Other than the Lascaux Centre and Rouffignac, please be aware that the caves require prior ticketing. Tickets usually sell out at FDG within days of release. Release is published to be at 45 days, but, for example, September tickets were released earlier. Very similar to most popular European venues. The website for Les Eyzies caves are on the French Monuments sites, other caves can be “Googled”. “The Rough Guide to the Dordogne & Lot “ and Paul Bahn’s “Cave Art “ are good resources.

We went to Font de Gaume, Peche Merle and Rouffignac. I loved them all. Peche Merle was my favorite; the handprints blew me away. It’s a bit of a drive from Domme, but worth it. It gives you a chance to see another river valley. We stopped at a couple of towns in the area and they had a different feel than the towns in the Dordogne Valley. With more time, I probably would have gone to Lascaux, but I was most interested in seeing the actual drawings.

Here's my Trip Report from our visit last October. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-part-2-hills-and-castles-dordogne

It's lengthy, so if you don't want to read it all, day 5 of the report is when we visited Font de Gaume. As others have mentioned, tickets are limited and when they go on sale seems to change often. I started checking every day about this time last year and finally got tickets mid-Sept; if I remember correctly.

On a previous visit in 2019 we visited Rouffignac and Lascaux. Both are also excellent. I wouldn't discount Lascaux just because it's a reproduction. It also has an excellent gallery that adds to the visit. I hope you enjoy the Dordogne as much as we did. It was one of my favourite vacations ever.

June 13, 14, 15, 2025 we visited Pech Merle, Lascaux IV and the Les Ezyies prehistory museum, and Font Le Gaume. Our experiences: Pech Merle was easy to visit. Getting there did not require a long walk. The actual cave is very accessible - smooth walkways, even stairways with railings, good lighting. One man in our group had a cane and was allowed to take it into the cave. The paintings are all protected by a fine mesh, but they are easily visible. The cave itself has beautiful limestone formations. Good adjacent cafe. This cave is a 75 minute drive from Sarlat, but it makes a good day trip combined with Saint Cirq la Popie.

Lascaux IV is a reproduction but is a very accurate representation of 95% of the cave. The original, no longer accessible to anyone without extensive credentials, is considered the "crown jewel" of the so-far discovered caves. Audio guide is available in most languages. The attached museum gives lots of detail about the cave art. It is definitely worth visiting!

The Les Ezyies prehistory museum is a very interesting building with a terrace that has excellent views. The displays are mostly animal skeletons and geologic - not much about the cave art. Parking is a PITA.

Font de Gaume - we had no trouble getting tickets a few weeks before our trip. Access to the cave is about a thousand foot steady uphill 20 minute walk. Lighting is very minimal - just the guide tracing the paintings with a flashlight. Only a very small portion of the cave is included in the tour. Lots of very low ceilings and some tight squeezes that would be difficult for anyone of larger dimensions.

We researched ahead of time and then did French tours of the two caves - for some reason English tours tend to be in the middle of the day which makes it difficult to do anything else that day.

Just our recent experiences - hope it is helpful

Thank you, fellow travelers, for your generous responses!!

While I do also look at the RS and Michelin guides, it's very helpful to hear from folks who have been to these sites.

One more query, svp:

How would you compose a one day itinerary from Domme to Font-de-Gaume and Lascuax and back? I also have a 6 mile hiking route that starts near Les Eyzies that I'd love to fit in - probably takes us 2-3 hours.

The English tours of Font-de-Gaume are at 10, 11:16, and 3:10.
Lascaux seems to be open in October from 9 to 19:00.

Also curious about whether to visit Lascaux II or IV or both.

Merci!

kayreed,
It is possible to visit both Lascaux IV and Font de Gaume on the same day, but you couldn't fit in a 2-3 hour hike as well. Since Font de Gaume reservations are the hardest to get, I would shoot for the 10:00 tour. Be aware that the cave is a bit of an uphill slog to the entrance, the pre-cave talk and the tour will take an hour (if I remember correctly from 2023). Due to the size of the cave and the delicacy of the drawings the group size per tour is no more than 10-13. Allow another 1/2 to 3/4 hour for the trek to and from the cave, a look around the gift shop/entrance building, and I would say from parking the car to leaving the parking lot you would need 2 hours for sure.
Since entrance to Lascaux IV is much easier, even for an English language tour (for which we made reservations), go there after lunch. Allow 3 hours from parking, walking to the site, going on the (guided) tour of the (excellent) reproduction, and exploring the superb displays and experiences.

It will take about a half-hour fto drive rom Domme to Font de Gaume (near Les Eyzies), and another half hour from there to Lascaux IV. You will need to fit in time for lunch as well. (The cafe at Lascaux IV is pretty good. You could go straight there for lunch before the tour.) There just won't be time to see both places and go on a 2-3 hour hike. Some tweaking is required.
I suggest combining the Font de Gaume tour with the hike on the same day. That would work. Les Eyzies has some small places for lunch along the main road. Go to Lascaux IV another day. (I have been to Lascaux II some years ago. You don't need to do both II and IV. Lascaux IV is much better.) Domme to Lascaux is about a 45 minute drive.
Another thing to combine with the Font de Gaume visit is a stop at the Prehistory Museum at Les Eyzies. That would take about an hour (unless you are like my family who would spend 2 hours there easily). I can still envision you being able to do your hike after lunch and the museum (with a 10:00 tour of FdeG). Just begin the hike at 3:00. (Squeezing a lot in here, though, and it will be getting dark earlier in October.)
You could also do your hike early morning and take the 11:16 tour at FdeG, then lunch at Les Eyzies followed by the museum. Or begin your hike about 9:00, have some lunch and spend an hour or so at the museum and go on the 3:10 FdeG tour.You have some options for seeng both caves, just factor in your times realistically, including drive times.
Both caves are wonderful and worthwhile. The Dordogne is a beautiful river and a beautiful area. Enjoy!

If you do plan on visiting the Pre History museum prior to or after Font de Gaume, last October it was closed for lunch from noon-2 when we were there.

Has anyone gone to some of the lesser known/smaller caves and cliff dwellings? du sorcier, abri du cap blanc, abri Pataud, St Cirq, Roc de Cazelle, Poisson? Also Mervailles close to Rocamadour, and Cougnac close to Pech Merle, and Pair and Pair close to Bordeaux? Wondering if any of those are worth visiting?

The "Abri Pataud" has been closed for several years due to lack of staff.

Unless you mean Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, which is very well-known and located in the neighboring Lot department, Saint-Cirq was the name for all the hamlets located west of Les Eyzie. This area was annexed to the village of Les Eyzie in 2019.

The name Saint-Cirq no longer exists administratively, and the Saint-Cirq cave is now called Grotte du Sorcier.

Thanks to everyone who have added their thoughts to my original question,

Now I have a new one!

I'd really like to see the La Grotte de Font-de-Gaume but the October tour dates have not yet been made available. I had expected to have them made available today, Sept 1.

Do any of you have insights? Will it be closed this fall? Or, am i just impatient?

Thanks!

We visited the 1st week of October last year and we bought our tickets the first day they went on sale which was Sept 9th. I had been monitoring it every morning for about a month and had even emailed them one time to find out when they'd go on sale, and was told it would be sometime in September. There doesn't appear to be any consistent dates as to when they release the dates.

The online ticketing system for the Prehistoric Sites of the Vézère Valley is like the Dordogne, very "rural." :)

Do as Allan did: check the website every day.

However, what is neither "rural" nor flexible in Font-de-Gaume is the requirement to be on site 30 minutes before the tour time. If you get tickets, be on time.

I'm glad you are considering Lascaux IV. I had the same concerns that it's a reproduction, but the English tour was very informative, the site is impressive, and it really complemented our visits to Font de Gaume and Peche Merle. They are all great. We had to take a tour in French in Peche Merle, but had English tours at the other two. We were unable to visit the Prehistory Museum because it was closed that day, but we would have after our Font de Gaume visit.

I was going to suggest the same thing as Allan and JoLui--just check every day for tickets. That's what I had to do in April 2024, and it worked fine.

And if for some reason you can't get an English tour of Font du Gaume, take a French tour. You might get lucky like my husband and I did in 2022. It was a French tour, but the other people on the tour were Swiss and said they'd rather have the tour in English, so the guide switched to English! It was a wonderful tour and would have been worth it even if we hadn't understood what the guide was saying. Seeing the original paintings was magical.