More than 400.000 years ago our ancestors settled in the lush green Vezere Valley. Today, Les Eyzies de Tayac and the surrounding area is one of the most interesting, fascinating and beautiful places in the world. We invite you to come and see and experience the area around Les Eyzies de Tayac, only then will you understand why our ancestors chose this place as their home.
In and around the town of Les Eyzies de Tayac are a series of prehistoric rock dwellings, the caves include some of the most significant archaeological finds of the Upper Paleolithic (from about 40,000 to10,000 years ago) and Middle Paleolithic (200,000 to 40,000 years ago) periods they are especially noted for their extensive wall drawings. Les Eyzies is ideally situated in the the Vézère valley which contains 147 prehistoric sites dating from the Paleolithic and 25 decorated caves.
It is particularly interesting from an ethnological and anthropological, as well as an aesthetic point of view because of its cave paintings, especially those of the Lascaux Cave, whose discovery in 1940 was of great importance for the history of prehistoric art. Les Eyzies de Tayac is also home to the National Prehistoric Museum, Font de Gaume, Combereilles, Cro Magnon Shelter, The Grand Roc, Fortified Church of Tayac ( Saint Martin) and many, many more sites of interest.
Reccommended Accommodation
B&B Ferme de Tayac, a lovely 12th century former farmhouse and monastery in the heart of the Vezere Valley and just 1 min. from the center of Les Eyzies. www.fermedetayac.com
One of the great pleasures of a holiday in France is being able to browse at the local markets. As you wander, your senses will be aroused with the perfume of herbs and spices….here you will find quality fruit and vegetables at excellent prices, also meat, bread and cheese….in fact the perfect way to begin your holiday is to visit a local Sunday market to stock up with food.
Located in Les Eyzies, on the Sarlat road, Font de Gaume Cave is a showpiece of Magdalenian engravings and paintings from around 14 000 BC. The flints (chisels, scrapers, blades) and other things found in the cave during the excavations testify to a continual occupation since the Mousterian age, or the age of the Neanderthals.
Discovered in 1901 by D. Peyrony, the Cave, 130 m long, contains about 250 paintings. The visitor can only see 30 of them, the most beautiful ones and the best preserved. After 60 m underground, the “Rubicon” is the beginning of the decorated part of the cave, with red dots on the left wall. These caves were not used as dwellings, they were shrines, according to A. Leroi-Gourhan The Grotte de Font-de-Gaume is famous for its cave paintings from the Magdalénien period. It is entrance is 20 m above the valley floor of the Beune valley, at the lower edege of a huge limestone rock.
There are many polychrome paintings and some engravings. The 240 figures show 80 bisons, which are the dominant motive. Most other pictures are also animals, 40 mammoths, 23 horses, 17 reindeers and deer, eight primitive cow, four goats, a wolf, a bear, and two rhinoceroses. More interesting, but less frequent, are four hand outlines and 19 geometric figures.
The cave was first settled by Stone Age people during the last Ice Age – about 25,000 BC – when the Dordogne was the domain of roaming bison, reindeer and mammoths. The cave mouth is no more than a fissure concealed by rocks and trees above a small lush valley, while inside, it’s a narrow twisting passage of irregular height in which you quickly lose your bearings in the dark. The first painting you see is a frieze of bison, at about eye level: reddish-brown in colour, massive, full of movement, and very far from the primitive representations you might expect. Further on a horse stands with one hoof slightly raised, resting. But the most miraculous of all is a frieze of five bison discovered in 1966 during cleaning operations. The colour, remarkably sharp and vivid, is preserved by a protective layer of calcite. Shading under the belly and down the thighs is used to give three-dimensionality with a sophistication that seems utterly modern. Another panel consists of superimposed drawings, a fairly common phenomenon in cave painting, sometimes the result of work by successive generations, but here an obviously deliberate technique. A reindeer in the foreground shares legs with a large bison behind to indicate perspective.
Location: Les Eyzies-de-Tayac. 1km from the centre of Eyzies on the left side of the Beune valley.
Dimension: Length = 400m. Guided tours : every 40min. Only 200 visitors per day, reservation necessary! Address : Grotte de Font-de-Gaume, BP 7, 24620 Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Tel: +33-553068600, Fax: +33-553352618
Reccommended Accommodation
B&B Ferme de Tayac, a lovely 12th century former farmhouse and monastery in the heart of the Vezere Valley and just 2 min. from Font de Gaume. www.fermedetayac.com
The Vezere has so much to offer, yet very few people who visit the area, actually get to see the REAL Dordogne. Everyone just visits the main attractions that are accessible by cars and coaches. To see the the REAL Dordogne you will need to get of the roads, and onto the tracks & trails, leave the car behind and get onto other means of transport, by foot, canoe, horse or mountain bike.
. Hiking & Exploring
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The Vezere Valley in the “Perigord Noir” is with it’s more than 250 UNESCO sites of interest, the undisputed “Prehistoric Capital of the World”. Prehistoric dwellings, caves, rock shelters and lots more, most of which are only accessible on foot.
However, Dordogne has much more to offer than just relics from the Prehistoric era, castles, bastides, medieval towns & villages, all of these,and lots more, all in the stunning and amazing scenery the Dordogne is famous for, hills, cliffs, windy rivers, great weather, friendly locals, and lots more make the Dordogne one of the most interesting and exciting places in the world.
Walking Dordogne takes you to all the well kept secrets that are only accessible on foot, horse or canoe. To see the “Real Dordogne” you will have to get off the roads, and on the tracks. Let us take you back, to the places our ancestors called “home” more than 460000 years ago.
We will take you on unforgettable trips to places that are remote, and seen only by a few lucky people, places of interest that are not mentioned on any maps or in any guide books. We will take you back in time to caves, shelters, dwellings and troglodytes hidden away by time and forgotten about.
Both the Dordogne and Vezere are named after the rivers that cut through the area. A lot has changed over the years, 1000′s of years to be precise.
Ever since “Man” came and settled in the Vezere Valley, the sheer limestone cliffs have been ideal spots to use as shelters, safe from the dangers that our ancestors faced, wild animals, severe weather, and other tribes.
Some of Dordogne’s best kept secrets are still to be found along the rivers, and only accessible by canoe or canoe / hike.
Our canoe trips leave at the crack of dawn, chances are you will spot deer, wild boar, otters, buzzards, kingfishers,fox and plenty of other wildlife.
We will pass Chateaus, ancient farmhouses, troglodytes and caves, and this is all on the way to our exploring grounds
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Ditch the car and get onto some real “Horse Power” 1000′s of years ago, there was a very high abundance of wild horses in this region, this can be seen in so many cave paintings found in the region. “Man” has always had a good friendship with horses, and that is still the case today.
We take you to some of the “Jewels” of the Dordogne and Vezere Valley, the only difference, is the way we take you to actually get there.
For hundreds, if not thousands of years, our ancestors would travel to far away places to trade goods, for hundreds of years, and many generations would follow the same tracks and trails to get to these often remote places. Along the way they would rest at places that have now become villages, hamlets and even towns. These tracks and trails quickly disappeared with the invention of the train and later the automobile.. lost and forgotten forever..
Well almost, we take you on a trip of a lifetime following these long forgotten trails.. Get on a horse and let us retrace the routes our ancestors took hundreds of years ago.
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We have spent more than 2 years putting together what is without any doubt the best mountain biking trails in the Dordogne. Our trails will but a smile on every mountain biker. Our trails offer everything you could wish for, fast and fun single tracks, some nail biting switchbacks, some brutal downhills and lets not forget about the fantastic scenery, our trails are mostly loops, and can be combined with most of our other trails to make them longer or shorter. so, if you want to spend an hour cranking, or an 8 hour slaughter, Walking Dordogne is the place to be.
Our notorious trails to date are :
•The Devils Play Ground
•Satan’s Fury
•Devils Backbone
•Valley of Revenge
•Hells Gorge •Dordogne Mayhem * New for 2010 *
B&B Ferme de Tayac, a lovely 12th century former farmhouse and monastery in the heart of the Vezere Valley and just 1 min. from the center of Les Eyzies. www.fermedetayac.com
