Horses spotted underground

Written 29May13

Even though rain was still tumbling down today, we ventured from our warm accommodation, intent on driving west downstream along the valley of the Cele, which runs through Figeac, to its confluence with its larger neighbour the Lot, and then follow the Lot valley upstream back to just south of Figeac. In this area these streams are bounded by limestone hills, in many places worn away into spectacular cliffs to which homes and villages cling.

Cele valley. Examine the pics carefully and you’ll see the buildings use the cliff as their back walls.

In many places the road runs very close to the cliffs, with the river on the road’s southern flank. Here the roadmakers have resorted to tunnelling into the cliff.

Note the scallop shell motif on the backpack. Pilgrims headed for Santiago de Compostella, in Spain, in the rain, Cele valley.

We were headed for Pech Merle…

In the millenia before the latest Ice Age began to thaw (around 15,000 years ago) to today’s “normal” temperatures, much of the animal population, including humans, of what is now western Europe, had found some refuge from the cold in the fertile valleys of the Cele and Lot rivers not far from Figeac. Britain and Ireland and much of the continent were covered by a sheet of ice and were one land mass with few if any land animals surviving on the ice sheet. The humans in the valleys south of the ice sheet were hunter gatherers but were thoroughly modern in that their brains were as large and as well developed as ours are now. Evidence? Among other, the wonderful cave paintings which they left behind.

Spotted horses gallery, Pech Merle caves, France. This is not my image, but has been borrowed from a very few images on this subject publicly available on the Internet.

Back in 1922 a couple of youngsters with a keen interest in such things discovered a small cave near where they lived, just near the junction of the Cele with the Lot. In the process of exploring this find, they hit the explorer jackpot. Their small cave led downward into a much larger series of natural galleries and in these galleries were unmistakeable signs of use by earlier humans. This site, Pech Merle, is one of the very few such sites which are open to the public. Visitor numbers are restricted to 700 per day and all must visit as part of a guided tour.

The natural galleries are spectacular enough in their own right, but the early human artworks and evidence of human presence, all exceeding 20,000 years in age (using credible dating technology) put the natural stuff in the shade. Bare footprints left by a youth or child in what was then mud on the floor of the cave were for me the most interesting. If I’d stumbled across such prints in mud today I’d assess them as recent and attribute them to a barefooted child. Sprayed prints of human hands, much like those at ancient Australian aboriginal art sites were also present.

The galleries were entombed at least 10,000 years ago when land slippage closed the entrance which had been used by early humans and animals such as cave bears, which hibernated in the cave. This left the interiors frozen in time until the young twentieth century explorers found their way in.

After our underground stint at Pech Merle, the rain still dribbling down, we ate our picnic lunch while huddled in the car and then headed back east, this time along the Lot valley, stopping off at Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, a very steep-streeted village huddled on high ground on the left bank of the Lot.

Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. Picturesque but cold and wet and a hell of a climb from the carpark.

By this time our cosy apartment was working on us like home port does for a sailor so we commanded our navigator to point the way and were home within the hour, just as another heavy rain shower struck.

We’re gradually working our way through the local restuarants, aiming for a different one each night, all within a short walk from home. Tonight we tried number five, and just like the others, it was excellent and very reasonably priced. We find we can get a very good meal for the two of us, with drinks, for under €50, and sometimes much lower. Two nights and two restaurants to go before we move on, down toward the Spanish border.

Thanks for reading

Kev