Grotto of Niaux

The next morning we learned that a) the parc historique was closed until March 31^st, and b) that if it was the Grotto of Niaux we wanted to see (it was), that could be arranged at the Grotto, up the valley, then up the canyon, then up the mountain. And so we proceeded on, up the valley, etc., to the Grotto, which is perched way high up over the canyon, with a clear view of the snow-clad Pyrenees. What were our ancestors, 15,000 years ago, thinking?

We enrolled in the 1:30 tour, en Francais, led by the same petite young woman we had met back at the parc prehistorique. Readers of this blog will know that we really enjoy prehistoric cave art and that southern France and Spain are sort of the epicenter of such things. So Niaux was high on our list. No photography is allowed in the cave, so all the pix here are either pix of pix or off the web. It was an 1800 meter trek in the cave—a huge ancient underground river-bed—round-trip, but not that bad really. The presentation of the paintings was done with all the flair and drama one would expect of French guides!

Snow-clad Pyrenees, indeed

Entrance to the Grotto of Niaux...500-600 feet above the
canyon; "discovered" in 1602; the paintings of
Magdalenian era, that is, fairly recent for this stuff, circa
15,000 years old

While we waited for the 1:30 tour, a bus load of young
scolaires got the tour as well as instruction on how to make
fire without a Bic, use of the atl-atl, etc.

And so, without further ado, the art...mostly bison
at Niaux

Ditto

Ibex

Horse