Vézère Valley Cliff Villages & Lascaux Caves
Just 20 km northwest of Sarlat, the Vézère Valley — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — cuts through limestone cliffs riddled with caves and troglodyte settlements that represent the densest concentration of prehistoric art on earth. The valley is the reason serious travellers base themselves in Sarlat: within a 30-minute drive you can stand before paintings made 17,000 years ago and eat lunch in a vil
Lascaux IV and the Cave Art Circuit
The original Lascaux cave near Montignac is closed to protect its extraordinary Palaeolithic paintings, but Lascaux IV — opened in 2016 at a cost of €57 million — is the most technologically sophisticated cave reproduction ever created, using digital scanning and mineral pigment application to replicate the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Shaft of the Dead Man with startling fidelity. Allow at least two hours and book tickets online well in advance in summer.
The Grotte de Font-de-Gaume near Les Eyzies is one of the last original painted caves still open to the public in Europe — its polychrome bison, mammoths and reindeer are genuine 14,000-year-old originals. Entry is strictly limited to 78 visitors per day; tickets go on sale online exactly 14 days in advance and sell out in minutes.
Les Eyzies and the Cliff Villages
The village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, 22 km from Sarlat, sits beneath a massive overhanging limestone cliff and houses the Musée National de Préhistoire — a world-class collection of flint tools, carved Venus figurines and animal bones that contextualises everything you see in the caves. Entry costs €6 and the building itself, embedded into the cliff, is architecturally remarkable.
La Roque-Gageac, on the Dordogne river 10 km south of Sarlat, is a different kind of cliff spectacle: a living village of golden stone houses stacked against a 100-metre vertical cliff above the river, with troglodyte caves visible in the rock face above the rooftops. A flat-bottomed gabarre boat trip on the Dordogne from La Roque-Gageac gives the best view of the cliff and the Château de Castelnaud opposite.
More of Sarlat-la-Canéda
Discover where to stay, what to do and the best deals for your trip.
Explore Sarlat-la-Canéda →
