France
In the limestone river valleys of the Perigord Noir, where the Vezere and Beune rivers have carved sheltered overhangs and deep caves into the honey-coloured cliffs, our earliest ancestors found refuge during the Ice Age and left behind an artistic legacy that still has the power to astonish. Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, a small village beneath a massive rock overhang in the Vezere Valley, is the self-proclaimed "Capital of Prehistory" — a title justified by the extraordinary density of prehistoric sites within walking distance of its main street. It was here, in 1868, that railway workers unearthed the skeletal remains of Cro-Magnon Man, giving a name to the anatomically modern humans who painted the caves of southwestern France over 30,000 years ago.
The Musee National de Prehistoire, built into the cliff face above the village, is one of the finest prehistoric archaeology museums in the world. Its collections span over 400,000 years of human habitation in the Vezere Valley, from the crude hand axes of Homo erectus to the exquisitely carved bone tools, jewellery, and figurines of the Upper Paleolithic — including the haunting "Venus" figurines whose voluptuous forms have inspired scholarly debate and artistic admiration for over a century. The museum's terrace offers a view across the valley that the Cro-Magnon inhabitants would recognise: the river winding through wooded bottom land, the cliff shelters where they lived and worked, the sky above still patrolled by the same species of raptors that feature in their cave art.
The prehistoric sites surrounding Les Eyzies read like a catalogue of human artistic awakening. The Grotte de Font-de-Gaume, just outside the village, contains polychrome paintings of bison, horses, and reindeer dating to approximately 17,000 years ago — one of the last original decorated caves in France still open to small groups of visitors. The Abri du Cap Blanc displays a carved limestone frieze of horses in high relief, their muscles and movement rendered with a naturalism that would not be matched in European art until the Renaissance. Lascaux, the "Sistine Chapel of Prehistory," lies 25 kilometres northeast — the original cave is closed to protect its paintings, but Lascaux IV, a full-scale replica using digital scanning technology, reproduces the experience with extraordinary fidelity.
The cuisine of the Vezere Valley mirrors the richness of the broader Perigord region. Duck in all its forms — confit, magret, rillettes, and the foie gras for which Perigord is perhaps most famous — dominates restaurant menus, accompanied by walnut salads, cep mushrooms gathered from the surrounding oak forests, and the robust red wines of Bergerac. The village's weekly market, held under the cliff overhang that shelters much of the town, brings together local producers selling goat cheese, honey, walnut oil, and the strawberries of Perigord, which are among the finest in France.
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac is visited by Tauck on Dordogne cultural itineraries. The ideal visiting season runs from April through October, with the spring months offering wildflower-filled meadows and comfortable temperatures for cave visits, and autumn bringing the forest mushroom harvest and the first crisp mornings when mist fills the Vezere Valley in scenes that recall the primeval landscapes our ancestors knew.