Font-de-Gaume

So today I got to visit the highly elusive (or at least relatively difficult to access) Font-De-Gaume!

What is this Faunt-De-Gaume you speak of, human?

Well I'll tell you, since I asked. It's a cave full of cave paintings from a good few thousand years ago. Awesome, right? It's one of the only ones that's still left open to the public, and the paintings are super incredible! Proper artsy. It was fabulous. It makes me wish I could go into Lascaux, which is closed to the public. You're allowed to go into Lascaux II because that's just a replica. But I kind of feel like that's like paying to go into the Louvre II - like the Louvre only all the paintings in there are replicas done by some other guy, rather than the actual paintings done by the original artists. Hmm. (Please note: The Louvre II does not exist - I made it up. Just in case you're silly enough to make that mistake)

Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures in the Font de Gaume. Which is sad because everything is really pretty and I wish I could put them on here. There are some really impressive bison (the last thing ones see in the cave were my favourite).

The tour was way shorter than I thought it would be, even though you go relatively deeply into the cave. However, the tour is in no way shape or form bank breaking. As a student I paid nothing. Rien. It was Free. Gratis. Yeah. Normal entrance is 7,50 Euro for an adult, I think. I thought I'd be paying twice that to get in. And I wouldn't have felt ripped off if I did. Value for money wise, it is fabulous.

Brace yourself for a queue though. For me, because I'm working here and Amandine is a babe, I managed to get a place in advance. People don't get that though, that's not normally a thing. Normally you have to queue from about 7am, 7:30am or maybe 8am depending on the time of year. Mid-summer the earlier you go the better. There's pretty high demand. I was talking to a lovely lady today who only managed to get one ticket yesterday when she queued, which went to her husband, and another today which was for her. She's a native English speaker, who also speaks Italian and is married to an Italian. I know this because they're staying at my campsite. She lectures translation stuff at an Italian university which is really cool. We had a nice little languages chat and a bit of a chat about Languagey culture and why people might think the French are rude as a population. Which isn't true, as a general rule. Anyway, I'm getting off topic. It's difficult to get in, and even this lovely lady had only managed to get a ticket to one of the French speaking tours. Her comprehension of French is pretty good though, especially for someone who identifies as a non-french speaker. But I did explain a few things to her that she didn't seem to get.

TOP TIP
Don't take the French tour unless your comprehension of French is relatively good. Like, I've been doing it for a good few years and I'm studying it at uni and I could just about understand some/most of what was being said. If you don't understand French you will probably not get what's going on. Unless you have a really good eye for cave paintings. Also, you will miss a lot of the interesting details. Even if your French is alright, if you're a native English speaker I'd probably recommend that one, because I had trouble understanding sometimes when geniuses bring in their whingy little toddlers (yes, again, because that kid is REALLY old enough to appreciate what's going on, especially considering they can't talk yet) and they whinge over the French guide and I can't quite make out what's going on ;.;

So what I mean is it takes a little effort to get in. You can't just waltz in. (partially due to the hill that almost killed me to climb) But it's worth it. It's totally worth it. So if you're ever in the area, you should go take a look. Also, if you're interested in prehistory, you shouldn't wait until maybe being in the area by coincidence, you should actually plan a holiday out here and have a look because there's such a wealth of prehistory here, it's pretty incredible.

And that was my penultimate day working in Les Eyzies.
Yeah working. I did this on my lunch break.
Bet your lunch breaks aren't that awesome.
(My lunch breaks are a few hours long - the tour isn't THAT short!)