Rouffingnac Cave

After Font de Gaume we drove across more interesting Dordogne countryside to the cave near Rouffingnac. The art is middle Magdelenian, maybe 15,000 years old, and is strictly engravings and black drawings. No polychrome. But it is an incredible collection, more than 200 animal depictions, 65 on the ceiling of one room alone, and more wooly mammoths than anything else. Again, something to behold. The cave itself is one of the largest, 8-10 km in length, but it is a dead cave--no running water--and so transportation to the art sites, a kilometer or more, is on a rickety little very narrow gauge electric train. The presentation is entirely in French although you can rent (1.5 euro) a smart-phone device that has English descriptions and pix. Rouffingnac was a major home for cave bears, when there were such things in Europe, and there is ample evidence of their habitation. The rock itself is a mixture of the remaining limestone, clay, and huge nodules of flint. On the whole, we thought Rouffingnac more impressive than Font de Gaume, perhaps because of the overwhelming number of depictions.

The entrance to Rouffingnac is far more promising than
Font de Gaume...you actually walk into the huge cave

And there are the ticket office, gift shoppe, waiting area,
displays, exhibits

Again, it's no fotos, so all I have is grabbed from
the web...

Thus; the aspect that is really impressive is the
sheer number of depictions, many in large
groups; there aren't any pix I can find that do
justice to Rouffingnac; alas

Flint nodules

Well satisfied with our two-cave day, we drove on through
the Perigord; above, mammoth, reindeer and bison at a town
roundabout

Through fields of rapeseed, and stopped at the aire in Nieul,
between Limoges and Poitiers

Playground/camping aire at Nieul