Pech Merle

Spectacular! Amazing to have the chance to see these drawings up close on one of the guided tours. Tour lasted about 90 minutes and our English speaking guide was great. The local area is also stunning with lots to see and do.

So interesting to go back in time. New museum is great and the staff and guides could not be more helpful. Highly recommend a visit, but book to avoid disappointment. There is a small restaurant on site. You can also walk up from the village (about 1km up hill on footpaths), where there are other establishments and a small river beach for a picnic.

Great experience. Underground natural cave dating back to 29,000 years ago. Beautiful and very interesting. Well kept, very clean and safe! The tour guide only spoke French, but English audio guides and guide books are available. There is also a museum which explains all that you'll find inside the cave. Highly recommended visit. Book tickets in advance for no waiting time.

A cave with paintings of 29.000 years ago. The art is incredible, humans of that time had great talent, I was not expecting to see such good drawings! It is a unique experience. Feeelings of admiration and respect.

What a special place to visit. Seeing paintings that were creared around 30,000 years ago was very special. We went on the English tour and the guide was very good. The museum is very well set out and there is also a film that is well worth seeing.

Unless you speak French you will not get the full benefit of going. The drawing were good and the cave reasonable (have been to a lot better). The disappointing thing was we received what we first thought was an audio guide …in English, to find it was just a receiver to listen to the guide who ONLY spoke in French. We were given a laminated booklet to read at each stop, but it was usually too dark to read it! They could ….and SHOULD do a lot better.

Fascinating prehistoric cave drawings. Excellent guided tours. An authentic experience not to be missed. There is also an informative museum. Photos are from the museum. What a delightful journey back in time.

A must visit if you are in the region and love history. The guide was pationed and brought excitement to the tour. We can't take photos so I am unable to upload here, but it does show you the paintings from thousands of years ago. An experience of a lifetime

The cave of Pech Merle is a wonderful experience. The caves are among the most beautiful I've been in with fabulous natural displays of nature's artistry. If you enjoy exploring underground wonderlands, it is worth going just for that. The icing on the cake (and our primary purpose for going!) are the incredible drawings left on several walls of the cave by Neolithic humans 29,000 years ago. As someone who has explored caves with a flashlight and candle as my only light source, the idea of negotiating the thin passageways and crawling under overhangs with only a shallow bowl of deer fat and juniper lamp is amazing! Let alone finding dry walls to serve as your canvas for creating your art on! The drawings themselves are breathtakingly beautiful. With just a few lines they convey their subject. The guided tour is over a paved walkway with several sets of stairs.

I have dreamed of viewing an actual cave, not a replica of prehistoric paintings, and this tour lived up to my dream. Something about seeing these artistic renderings, realizing these have been dated to 29,000 BC (carbon dated by charcoal used on the horse's mane), gave me a frisson of wonder. The oldest art I have seen, and so beautifully drawn in manganese, with the style going on for 10,000 years in this cave until a landslide closed the entrance, only rediscovered in 1922. Only a few tours are available each day to protect the cave, which has numerous beautiful cave stalactites and stalagmite formations as well as the aon-site. Book tickets in advance online to be assured of a spot. Photos are not allowed in the cave. My photos are photos taken from a book available in the gift shop. An outdoor cafe and informative museum are also onsite.

This cave contains some of the oldest paintings still open to the public. They are almost twice as old as Lascaux, yet amazingly sophisticated. The "spotted horse" is probably the most famous image, but I was equally impressed by the use of the rock contours to produce 3-dimensional effects in many other images. I have visited 4 other caves in France and Spain, and this remains my favorite. Guides officially speak only French, but there are large-print packets in several languages that do a good job of explaining the images. Besides, the guide will often speak some other language at least well enough to answer some questions, or translate a bit of the tour. Incidentally, right at the intersection where you turn off the main road along the river, there is a delightful inn called Hotel des Grottes. Great location for touring the area, and an excellent chef.

Pech Merle is one of the few caves that are still open where you can see an early artistic masterpiece. The cave is famous for its painting of horses. We took the English tour (tickets purchased online in advance), which was very informative and gives a guided tour of the entire cave. The guide spoke excellent English and gave us many insights into the significance of the paintings and etchings. My only complaint is that I would have liked more time to study the famous horses. I recommend that you study the pictures online before you go so that you can use your time well. It is a magical experience!