Caves Of Arcy-Sur-Cure

All our previous experience of caves and prehistoric cave art in France (which is considerable) has been in the south, so it was with great interest that we learned of the existence and significance of the caves of Arcy-sur-Cure, just 20 miles south of Auxerre. We booked a tour (French only) and showed up the next morning, June 30. It was one of our better cave art tours. Arcy's "paintings" feature a range of animals and some hands-in-negative, dated at about 28,000 years ago...making them the 2nd oldest set of cave paintings so far discovered. Chauvet, the Pont d'Arc, which we saw in 2016, is still the oldest. Arcy's collection, although polychrome and quite varied, is relatively small, due to a "cleaning" of soot from the walls in the 70s and 80s. Although the caves at Arcy have been known--and inhabited--for ages, the paintings themselves were not identified until the 90s. It takes special skill to "see" them beneath the ancient limestone coating, and even more skill to remove that coating without damaging them. Anyhow, much further information is below and in various articles on the web.

Not so sure about the 200,000 years, but old enough for us

Traditional entrance; Arcy is privately-owned and commercialized;
but tastefully and with due regard to preservation, archaeological
interests, education, etc.

Helpful map of the main cave; there are perhaps
a dozen others up the river

Helpful map of all France's known caves and grottos;
mostly in the south

One of several kiddie classrooms; two busloads were leaving as
we arrived; the kids have a look in the cave, then do their own
(finger) paintings

Upstream, one of the several other caves

All of which have yielded evidence of human habitation over the
last three three millennia

Amply documented in the excellent signage

 

Now we are walking along the paved main cave floor, me snapping
pix along the way

The usual cave features

At which point the guide informed me there was a no fotos policy;
oops!

The tour was mostly in French, although the guide
gave us synopses in English, the printed English
pamphlet (above and following), and answered our
questions [click to enlarge]

This and the following are examples of what we saw...all either
photos of the Cave's publications/posters, or off the web

Lots of mastodons

Menagerie

Among the hands-in-negative