The Prehistoric Sites of the Perigord and Aquitane - Lascaux II and La Roque St Christophe

The area around the Aquitaine and the Perigord has a huge amount of prehistoric sites that are open to the public to visit. Before our trip, I had no idea about a lot of this side of France's history, so we spent a full day exploring caves with some amazing prehistoric paintings and a large Troglodyte fort.

Our first stop was Montignac, a small town north of the Perigord in the Aquitaine region of France. The town itself is pretty and deserves a visit, but most people just stop to pick up tickets on their way to Lascaux II, a replica of the famous Lascaux cave.

The original Lascaux cave was discovered in the 1940's by Marcel Ravidat who was only 18 and who literally stumbled across it. The cave had some of the most well preserved Palaeolithic cave paintings ever discovered, and is most amazing due to the details of the animals, many of which seem to be in motion.

The cave was closed to the public in the late 1930's to preserve the art, but an exact replica of the cave was opened in 1983 so visitors could still get a glimpse of the amazing artwork.

The paintings are mainly of stags, Bulls and Horses and the detail is fantastic. There is a big hall filled mainly with bulls, with one in particular being over 5 metres long.

To me the paintings almost looked like those created by students at an art school, with the motion shown and several bison painted close to each other to show depth.

There are several tours in various languages throughout the day. You just turn up in Montignac and they give you a ticket for the next available tour. Luckily we only had to wait about half an hour before we could go in. The tour itself only lasts about half an hour, but the guides are full of interesting information telling the whole story about how the original cave was discovered and also their own opinions on what the drawings mean and what they can tell us about who painted them.

Afterwards we headed back to Montignac for some lunch. We stopped at the local patisserie again and grabbed some quiches and apple tarts, and ate them overlooking the river that runs through the town.

After lunch we continued driving and ended up at a pretty town called Saint-Leon-sur-Vezere, not surprisingly also on the Most Beautiful Villages in France list. The village is only tiny, easily walkable in about 15 minutes, but the drive from Montignac is through some beautiful countryside, and by skipping the mains roads we missed any traffic as well. Most of the time we were the only ones in sight.

We stopped by the river for some ice cream, and sat in the sun and thought about dipping our toes in the water. Maybe in Summer, but in Spring the water was just too chilly!

The next stop on our prehistoric tour was La Roque St Christophe. A huge network of caves is built into the rock, 1km long and 80 metres high with more than five levels. It was first occupied 55,000 years ago by prehistoric people and was then turned into a troglodyte fortress before being turned into a city where it was occupied until the Renaissance period.

Along an authentic calcareous cliffside measuring 1 km long and 80 m high, continually eroded by the river and frost, an abundance of rock shelters and long open-air terraces formed on the cliff of La Roque Sant Christophe. Occupied by man since Prehistory (55,000 years ago), the site was then turned into a troglodyte fort and remained a city until the end of the Renaissance. - See more at: http://www.lascaux-dordogne.com/en/patrimoine-culturel/historic-site-and-monument-cave-dwelling-village-site/la-roque-saint-christophe#sthash.Zw7wDyT9.dpuf

You pay to enter, and then you can either wander around yourself or take a tour. We chose to do the exploring ourselves, as the groups were easily 30 people in total and no-one looked like they were having much fun.

The caves still show so much of how people lived so long ago, there are still crosses carved into the wall in the church and holes where pulley systems were in place to bring food and supplies up from the ground. It's easy to imagine how safe they must have felt living up so high.

There are a few reconstruction's in the caves showing daily life, including the huge waterwheel above.

The views went on for miles, you could see right down the river in every direction.

A bit further down the road is the small town of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, built into towering cliff faces. In 1868, during construction of a railroad, a rock shelter in a limestone cliff was discovered. In the shelter a geologist discovered the remains of five Cro-Magnons in Les Eyziers, the earliest known remains of anatomically modern humans.

We wandered around the town for a while before hopping back in the car and heading home. We were absolutely shattered after such a huge day of exploring. We stopped at a supermarket on the way back for some bread, wine and cheese which we ate in the garden whilst watching the sunset.

Such a lovely end to a long weekend in the Perigord, but we were looking forward to the next day when we'd be heading back towards Bordeaux and the historic town of St. Emilion.

The next morning we headed out after breakfast towards Bordeaux. We had a few stops planned on the way, with the first one being Limeuil, another of France's Most Beautiful Villages!

Limeuil is a tiny town where two rivers meet, the Dordogne and the Vezere. We were the only tourists there when we arrived, so we took our time meandering up the winding streets, surrounded by the medieval walls, of which there are still three fortified gates remaining.

All the houses were made of the same beautiful brick and stone we had seen in many of the other surrounding villages, with roses creeping up the sides of the houses. Everything was so beautifully kept, and it wasn't hard to be charmed by this tiny town with only 300 residents.

The last stop before we headed towards our Bed and Breakfast in St Emilion, was the city of Bergerac. It is a city and not a town, but it didn't seem too different to the small places we had seen over the last few days.

Bergerac is predominantly known for its excellent wine, and there are plenty of wine bars and shops in the city to keep anyone entertained!

The medieval old town has a lot of old wooden buildings, which made a nice change to all the brick and stone buildings of the rest of the Perigord region.

We spent a while exploring the city, there are a lot of high street shops like Sephora which kept me occupied for a good couple of hours. We then hopped back in the car and continued onto St Emilion, another town famous for its excellent wine!