On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED - Page 44 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Friday 17 September – part two: “it had better be worth it when we get there”
Our next stop was to be Pont Valentre, which was built in the 14th century and was never attacked. It has six Gothic spans in total and was restored in 1879. It’s classed as the best medieval bridge in Europe and, looking at it, I could see why. There’s a neat story around this bridge and its construction. It was said that the architect asked the Devil to help complete the bridge, in return for his soul. To escape the agreement, he tried to fool the Devil and, as a result, every night the last stone to be laid in the central tower would then fall, only to be replaced the next day. How true that is, I have no idea, but it’s a nice story and it’s a beautiful looking thing. First, we stopped at a viewpoint, which gave us some stunning views with lovely reflections.
Then we actually pulled up by the bridge and got lots of photos on it.
That done, we were off and heading for our next destination. Now planning today had been a complete nightmare from day one, as there were so many things to see and do in the Dordogne Valley. I knew I really wanted to see one of the region’s many prehistoric caves, but which to pick? The first one I liked the look of was Grotto de Pech-Merle, but what put me off it was that it was strictly limited to just 700 people a day and they advised booking in advance. In the end, I decided to chance it, especially as Mark’s parents had visited what’s claimed to be France’s most beautiful village nearby, so I figured if we couldn’t get into the caves, at least not all would be lost, so off we went.
The closer we got, the more winding the roads got, until we were driving with the cliff face on one side of us and the river on the other side. Mark was not enjoying the drive at all : and kept muttering various comments, such as “it had better be worth it when we get there”, which did nothing for my nerves. What the heck would happen if we turned up there and all 700 places for the day were already gone?
Wonderful photos of the bridge. The water on the one side is so calm it looks like a mirror. I hope you get into the caves, sorry about the drive to it. I am so uncomfortable on roads like that. My DH and I always end up rather tense with each other on those roads because my nerves always get the better of me. Looking forward to the next installment.
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Friday 17 September – part three: are there any tickets left?
Finally, we made it and I literally jumped out of the car and headed to get tickets, just in case we were the 698th and 699th visitor of the day. Well, there was good and bad news for Mark, who was following me. The good news was that there were plenty of spaces, with none of the afternoon tours taken at all but the bad news was that the next tour wasn’t going to be until 2pm and the tickets wouldn’t go on sale until 1.30pm. It was now 12.30pm.
Mark suggested having a look at the museum and it was very interesting, detailing how these prehistoric caves were found and some of the discoveries that had been made in them. It gave us some useful background for our tour and I’m glad we went there first and not after the tour.
This display shows the history of the caves and the photos right at the end of it are the part that prehistoric man played in that history. Puts it all in perspective, doesn’t it?
We had to be reasonably quick, as the museum was closing for lunch at 12.45pm, so we headed out and wandered down to the area, where there were a couple of shops and a snack bar. We got a book and fridge magnet and then went to get some food.
Honestly, this place was bizarre. Everyone seemed to be doing two jobs. We went into a shop, came out and went to the snack bar and it was the same woman dealing with both. I guess that’s good multi-tasking for you....
Mark just got some fries, saying that he didn’t want to risk a burger as well, after his under-cooked burger in Narbonne a couple of nights ago. I went for a French speciality, a gouffre, or waffle, with sugar.
We sat there eating and, by the time we finished, there were a couple of people waiting at the ticket booth. As we wanted to be on the first tour at 2pm, and there are only 25 people on each tour, we got in line and we were about eighth in the line, so we had no problems getting tickets. Of course, there was still more of a wait before the tour started, so we wandered back to the car and cleaned the windows a bit, as some, especially my passenger one, were very dirty. Then we turned our attention to the lights. I figured a little bit of love for our car wouldn’t hurt.
We headed back in time for our tour, the vast majority of which was done in French, although there were guides available in a variety of different languages to help you through, including of course English. The introduction explained about how the caves were discovered. It was first found in 1914, but at that time, there were no prehistoric remains to be seen, so the significance of the caves wasn’t fully realised. That remained the case until 1922, when two very enterprising young boys, aged 15 and 16, who had been exploring the caves for a number of months, despite being told not to by their parents, stumbled across the prehistoric caves. On the tour, we saw the hole they came in through and all I’m saying is that you’d have to be young and agile to get through that.
Since then, electricity’s been provided in the caves and I was amazed by the facilities they had down there. There weren’t that many steps, certainly not upwards, right until you return to daylight at the end of your tour. There are even ramps in there, smooth with concrete, goodness knows how they did that without damaging the fragile environment.
Our guide also explained about that and how they had to be careful to preserve the site, hence the 700 people limit per day. The caves discovered a few miles away at Lascaux in 1940, deteriorated rapidly after people started to visit and they had to be closed down by 1963 completely, with a reconstruction made just a few hundred metres away. They don’t want the same thing to happen here. : As a result, no photos is just one of the rules they have here, so I’ll share with you the postcards we bought to remind us of this amazing place.
They also showed how prehistoric man (and woman I guess :whistle) did the cave paintings we would see during our tour. All I can say is that they were extremely inventive and they were even using flint brushes as time went on.
Then it was time to descend into the caves. We were the first to go down and, as Mark said, “darn it, we could’ve got a couple of photos” Never mind! We were taken on an hour long tour, which was fascinating and worth every cent of the €8 ($10.40) that we had paid for it. I came away thinking that was actually excellent value for money, as it allowed you to take a step back in time literally tens of thousands of years.
I must admit wandering around the caves did make me feel very small. There had been a display outside, which showed when the caves were formed and then when prehistoric man arrived and basically that was the last couple of blips along the display:
As you stood there, looking at the various stalactites and stalagmites everywhere and thinking about the statistic we’d heard in the Cuevas de Canalobre, that these things take 100 years to grow one centimetre (around a third of an inch) and these things were huge!
But this technically wasn’t what we were here to see. We were here to admire the works of art from prehistoric days and it wasn’t long before we were seeing those. The first area we came to is known as the Black Frieze and has drawings in it of 11 mammoths, five bison and four horses. I must admit, before we came down here, I was a bit sceptical about this, figuring we’d be standing there, trying to work out what these drawings depicted, but my goodness, I was wrong. They were clear as crystal. You could immediately see what these people were portraying and I was amazed by it.
We moved on from there, seeing many other wonders, including the Hall of Discs, where the limestone has crystallised into concentric circles, looking like large discs. The largest of these is actually three metres in diameter and it’s something to see.
Next you see fossilised human footprints, which are thought to be of teenagers or young adults. They’ve been validated that these do indeed date from prehistoric days.
Then you’re greeted with what looks like a set of marbles, but these are actually stones that have been completely shaped into perfect circles by water over the years.
Missed a couple days, but caught up now. LOVED the medieval bridge! That was just gorgeous. And I'm sure the caves were fascinating. It does make you feel a bit small realizing all that's happened prior to you walking the earth, doesn't it?
Glad you were able to get in to the caves after the winding drive - I don't know that I could have done that as those kinds of roads are not nice to my stomach!
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There’s a neat story around this bridge and its construction. It was said that the architect asked the Devil to help complete the bridge, in return for his soul. To escape the agreement, he tried to fool the Devil and, as a result, every night the last stone to be laid in the central tower would then fall, only to be replaced the next day. How true that is, I have no idea, but it’s a nice story and it’s a beautiful looking thing. 
First, we stopped at a viewpoint, which gave us some stunning views with lovely reflections. 
The first one I liked the look of was Grotto de Pech-Merle, but what put me off it was that it was strictly limited to just 700 people a day and they advised booking in advance. In the end, I decided to chance it, especially as Mark’s parents had visited what’s claimed to be France’s most beautiful village nearby, so I figured if we couldn’t get into the caves, at least not all would be lost, so off we went. 
: and kept muttering various comments, such as “it had better be worth it when we get there”, which did nothing for my nerves. What the heck would happen if we turned up there and all 700 places for the day were already gone? 
,
Hope you get a ticket for the caves.
My normal everyday computer routine!
I guess that’s good multi-tasking for you.... 
Never mind! We were taken on an hour long tour, which was fascinating and worth every cent of the €8 ($10.40) that we had paid for it. I came away thinking that was actually excellent value for money, as it allowed you to take a step back in time literally tens of thousands of years. 
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