Grotte de Niaux, Niaux

Fantastic visit to 17,000 year old cave paintings. Reservation mandatory as number of visitors is limited. Need good walking shoes, not for people with poor mobility due to rough terrain inside cave. Total visit about 1h45. One of the only places where you can see the original paintings not reproductions. Highly recommended.

Absolutely brilliant gallery and experience.

One of the most astonishing caves with its amazing art!

Visiting this cave was the highlight of a 19 day art tour in Spain. Experiencing the 13, 900 year old artwork surpassed anything I had seen in Spain. The beautifully drawn animals, showing depth, understanding of movement and persepective, left me speechless. You must be able to walk into the caves over uneven, ground, sometimes stepping in puddles, carrying a flashlight that is provided at the site for 35 minutes in, 35 minutes out. You ascend, descend, until you reach the major room, Salon Noir where you remain 30 minutes. No pictures are allowed in order to preserve these phenomenal drawing. The guide was excellent. If you want to experience authentic cave drawings, this is a wonderful site. Even more compelling to me in planning my visit was the fact that I was able to purchase my ticket ahead of time and the fact that this is not a museum; this is the actual cave. I will never forget this experience.

incredible. The tour is well organized - bring good shoes and prepare to walk on slippery rock. 10000, 20000, perhaps even 30000 years ago, people walked a kilometer into a dark cave to paint on the walls using light from lamps burning animal fat. And these aren't just my type of scribbles, but actual genius art. You must go to find out how capable our ancestors were. This is one of the few places where you can see the actual art and not just reproductions.