Cave Art Tours in France - With Thomas Dowson
For ten years from 2005 I ran a B&B France. Although I had often given public lectures and taken people to rock art sites (in South Africa) and students on field trips, it was quite by chance I got into guiding my guests to attractions near my B&B.
An elderly English couple decided that one thing that they had to do was to visit the Somme Battlefields – where a relative fell during World War I. There was accommodation closer to the Somme, but I had been recommended to them. They booked well in advance, telling me that they really wanted to visit one World War I cemetery in particular, which I located for them and worked out the route they should take. What they did not tell me was they were not comfortable driving in France.
By the time they arrived chez moi, they had had quite enough driving on what was for them the ‘wrong’ side of the road. Getting themselves home was already weighing on their mind – visiting the Somme Battlefields was out of the question. Well, I was not having that – I decided to take them myself. After that, providing my guests with guided tours of the wonderful nearby attractions was a service I offered my guests. But, it soon became apparent, people wanted me to do tours of the cave art of France – after all that is my area of archaeological expertise. You can Read More about my background in archaeology, and even watch a BBC documentary that featured my research on cave art in Europe, on my profile page.
Small Group Cave Art Tour Vézère Valley
Les Eyzies, and the historic Hotel Cromagnon, is the base for exploring some of the jewels in the crown of Dordogne’s past. The focus of this 4-day guided tour is the Ice Age cave art, for which the region is well known worldwide. Besides visiting some of the finest decorated caves in the area, including the replica of Lascaux, also on the itinerary is an extraordinary Roman townhouse, a medieval Troglodyte settlement and an imposing castle associated with the 100 Year’s War between France and England. The small group guided tour is strictly limited to seven participants, with dates in May and September 2026, and May 2027.
18 day tour of Stone Age cave art in southern France and northern Spain: the map shows the bare-bones of the itinerary using our own, custom built Itinerary Builder. The brief was to visit as many French and Spanish cave art sites and museums as possible in 21 days this May, 2025.
This has been a great tour to plan; I rarely get to do France and Spain together. I really could have kept going on into northern Portugal for the spectacular open-air engravings in the Vila Nova de Foz Côa area.
There is still availability for private guided tours in 2025, and I am always ready to create your self-guided tour. Contact me via the form at the bottom of this page.
Create Your Own Itinerary
On Archaeology Travel, you will fill all the resources you require to create your own itinerary. Some of you will be interested in seeing as many of the caves as you can, you will find the Guide to Prehistoric Cave Art in France an invaluable place to start. This is the most comprehensive guide in English, each site that is open to the public is included, for which you will find a map, visiting information, and a link to the official website.
We also have created an Itinerary Builder that enables you to map your itinerary. To do this, you will need to register an account.
Having created a number of bespoke itineraries, I have published the following self-guided itinerary for you to take and adapt: 7-Day Self-Guide Tour Visiting the Best Cave Art in France.
Thank you ! Thank you! for creating our itinerary for a magical tour of cave art in France. It was beyond what we had hoped for. The number we saw was perfect. Each was so special and different from the others we can not imagine that the trip could have been better."
Buy a Bespoke Itinerary
Some people just do not have time to create their own itinerary, but would still prefer a self-guided holiday. Using my extensive experience visiting the prehistoric caves of France, I offer a service where you provide me with your requirements, and then with these details I create a bespoke itinerary. Because I am not available for tours of less than four days, this is also a perfect solution for those who only have a few days available to see as many sites as possible.
No two requests are the same, people tour in different months, at different times in the month, starting on different days of the week, with individual interests and requirements. Sites and attractions have different opening times, during the week, and the year. For each itinerary, I take all these factors into account. I do not copy and paste itineraries from one client to another.
Using your travelling details I provide all the necessary information required from accommodation to where to go to see the best cave art sites. Included are GPS/SatNav details so you can not get lost, how to get tickets, which tickets can be purchased in advance (and how), when to visit the sites. Basically, I provide a detailed itinerary with all the information you will require to enable you to self-guide yourself. Using our Itinerary Builder, you will be able to see the itinerary I create plotted on a Google map.
Please note: I personally create each itinerary, based on my knowledge and experience gained over three decades. I do not use AI in any form or manner.Â
PRICE: The cost for a bespoke itinerary is €120, for up to five days, and €20 per day thereafter. The cost includes: a 30 minute video call, a pdf with a detailed day-by-day itinerary, including such details as agreed during the video call, such as, cave art sites, other sites, accommodation and restaurant recommendations, a link to a Google map.
Expertise & Experience: What Qualifies me?
Perhaps you are wondering about my expertise and experience. Or, more specifically, what qualifies me to offer the services I do on this page.
â–º Following undergraduate studies in archaeology in the mid 1980s at the University of the Witwatersrand, I worked in what is now the Rock Art Research Institute – my final years there as Deputy Director. In 1994 I moved to the University of Southampton, where I set up the world’s first taught postgraduate degree programme in rock art studies.
â–º During my academic career I published numerous books and articles, both academic and general, presenting my research on various aspect of rock art. These include appraoches to the interpretation and presentation of rock art, to different audiences. The appraoch to understanding Ice Age cave art in Europe, developed with colleagues, was made into a documentary for a series broadcast by the BBC to commemorate the new millenium (what the video on my profile page).
â–º While teaching rock art, I took students to visit rock art sites in England, France, Lesotho, Namibia, Scotland and South Africa. Since 2013 I have guided many people, and helped more than five times as many with their itinerrary planning. Helping others explore humanity’s histories in more meaningful ways is the core mission of this website. Sharing my expertise and experience is something I am very passionate about.
► I regularly visit the sites I recommend, search for new sites and experiences, as well as making use of related travel services (guided tours, hotels, restaurants, etc,). My own travels and feedback from past clients help me keep my suggestions and recommendations up to date and relevant. Based on the information included in the first message from one client, I was able to make a small tweak to their suggested itinerary that saved them over €250 and enabled them to see two more caves than they would have without my intervention. I saved them more than my fee, and they saw more than they thought was possible. This is based on years of experience, knowing what works and what doesnt. Not anything AI can tell you.
â–º Finally, if you have any questions for me, please do not hesitate to fill in the form below. I am more than happy to anwer questions that may help you make up your mind.
"I was talking about you today telling a friend what a great trip I had to France. Just wanted you to know again that it was truly memorable and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Great memories and also for me exposure to history I knew little about. Thanks again sharing your knowledge and putting together a wonderful itinerary."
Private, Guided Cave Art Tours
There is no set itinerary to this tour as all my tours of French cave art are bespoke – I create an itinerary based on what is important to you. Some people want to see as many cave art sites as they can within a set number of days, some want to add different archaeological sites and other attractions in the area – such as wine tasting and light sporting activities such as kayaking down the Dordogne River. Some clients combine seeing cave art sites for a few days with either the Neolithic sites of southern Brittany or the amazing Roman sites in Provence. You tell me what you want to see, and I create your itinerary.
The following are some suggestions on which to base your thinking:
From Paris to Marseilles, or Marseilles to Paris
For the ultimate Cave Art experience of France, I recommend a trip, over a minimum of nine days but 14 days is popular, that starts in Paris and the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale (France’s national archaeology museum), and ends in the south with a visit to the newly opened Grotte du Pont d’Arc – a replica of the recently discovered Chauvet. Starting in the south and ending in Paris is just as good – I have provided both. This is a particularly practicable tour because Paris and Marseilles have well connected international airports, making starting and finishing the tour hassle-free.
This tour in a nutshell: starting in Paris, we see blocks of carved limestone that were removed from Roc-aux-Sorciers. Heading south, depending on the length of the tour, we can stop at the replica of Roc-aux-Sorciers and then head to the Dordogne visiting such sites as Font de Gaume, Les Combarelles, Rouffignac and the replica of Lascaux. I recommend Les-Eyzies as a base for the Dordogne sites and from here the two must see sites in the Midi-Pyrénées, Pech Merle and Cougnac, are an easy day trip. From here we head to the Pyrénées for the spectacular site of Niaux. And then its over to the Ardeche to visit the replica of Chauvet.
As this tour inevitably passes through some of the best regions France has to offer, this tour can be customised to include other attractions that interest you. For example, travelling from the Midi-Pyrénées to the Pyrénées, a stop at the fortified Medieval city of Carcassonne is not only very easy but a slight detour I can thoroughly recommend. Similarly, travelling to or from the Pyrénées from or to the Ardeche and the replica of Grotte Chauvet passes by some of the best Roman sites in southern France.
7 Days in the Dordogne
Certainly the most concentrated set of sites, and amongst the best cave art in France is in the Dordogne. More specifically, in the Vézére Valley. Here there are over 14 archaeological sites and 25 decorated caves on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. And a number of these are open to the public – definitely enough, with various museums and other interesting attractions in the area, to keep visitors busy for a week or more.
As well as visiting decorated caves, there are a few rock shelters that have extensive archaeological deposits. The excavation of these not only produced some of the exquisite pieces of portable art, animals carved in bone for example, has done much to formulate our understanding of the hunter-gatherers who lived in the area. Many of these can also be visited.
There are a number of charming towns and villages in the Vézére Valley, but my choice of base for exploring the archaeology and history of this area is without hesitation Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac. Les Eyzies is also a wonderfully picturesque town, and home to France’s national prehistory museum. Some cave art and related archaeological sites are within walking distance of the town, others are within easy reach. Pech Merle and Cougnac, two of the best cave art sites in the Midi-Pyrénées region, are both possible on a day-trip from Les Eyzies.
For a thorough exploration of the area, that can include more than just the Palaeolithic heritage, I recommend a seven day stay in the Les Eyzies. Getting to Les Eyzies is relatively easy. For guests who just take a seven day tour of Les Eyzies, I recommend arriving in Paris, and getting the train to Brive-La-Gaillard where we will meet. There is an airport just south of Brive that has a few flights (from Paris, London, Amsterdam and a few other destinations). Bordeaux, home to Musée d’Aquitaine – which has good cave art exhibitions, is another good place to start this tour.
Further Information
DATES: As my guided tours of the Cave Art of France are private and bespoke, I am flexible with the dates. The months of July and August are not available, otherwise I am happy to provide you with a tour when it suits you – if I am available. But, do bear in mind that from November to March there is restricted accessibility to some sites and attractions. For the best experience of the caves and those regions of France where they are located, I recommend the following months: May and June, and September and October.
PRICE: The tour is entirely bespoke – I have never done the same Cave Art Tour twice. Consequently the price depends on all sorts of factors, such as: the length of the tour, the number in the party, what accommodation star rating you choose, how much travelling – for example a seven day tour of the Dordogne sites is different to seven days from Nice to Paris. But to give you an idea of costs, in June 2019 I provided a nine-day tour, starting in Nice and ending in Paris, staying at 5* hotels for four people, and the cost was €5,100 per person – all inclusive (travel to France, drinks and gratuities were the only costs not included – otherwise all meals, accommodation, travel within France, entries to museums was included).
THE PROCESS IN BRIEF:
- Once I have your dates, and a good idea of what it is you want to see, I will construct a draft itinerary and a price.
- If that itinerary and cost suits you, and you want to secure my services you transfer a 30% deposit to my bank account.
- Following receipt of your deposit I issue you with a more detailed version of the itinerary.
- We then discuss the itinerary and modify it if necessary to suit your requirements (some changes can incur costs).
- Once we agree a ‘final’ itinerary, I then provide details of the accommodation for you to review – changes made where necessary.
- Balance is payable 12 weeks before the start of the tour.
Trust: How do you know I am Who I Say I am
â–º Archaeology Travel was launched in 2010. You can check the WhoIs data to see that the website was registered on 27 July 2010. The website has changed considerably over the last decade and a half, these changes can be seen on the internet archive, Wayback Machine. And it continues to grow. Currently over 600 pages make up the various guides and sections of this website.Â
â–º My expertise and experience are attested (see the section above). As are the credentials of the website and the business behind it (Imprint).Â
â–º After payment of a deposit (30% for guided tours) or the itinerary fee, the first thing I do is to arrange a videocall. I offer this specifically to put potential clients’ minds at ease – to show I exist.Â
Send an Enquiry
To purchase a bespoke itinerary or send an enquiry for a guided tour, fill in the form below. We aim to respond to your request/enquiry within 24 hours. Once payment for the itinerary is received, we aim to email a pdf to you within four days.Â
