France Guide
The Pyrenees
Niaux
Just south of Tarascon, the D8 cuts up right into the green Vicdessos valley; the hamlet of NIAUX lies in the valley bottom, 4km along, hosting an interesting Musée Pyrénéen (daily: July & Aug 9am–8pm; Sept– June 10am– noon & 2–6pm; €8), with an unrivalled collection of tools, furnishings and old photos illustrating the vanished traditions of peasant Ariège.
But the real reason people descend on this little hamlet is for the Grotte de Niaux, a huge cave complex under an enormous rock overhang 2km north of the hamlet (45min guided tours: July– Sept daily 9am–5.45pm, English tours at 9am & 1pm; April– June & Oct 10.30am–5pm; Nov– Jan & March, tours at 11am, 2.30pm & 4.15pm; €9.40; max group size 20, advance reservations mandatory on 
05.61.05.10.10). There are 4km of galleries in all, with paintings of the Magdalenian period (c.11,000 BC) scattered throughout, although tours see just a fraction of the complex, in particular paintings adorning a vast chamber, a slippery 900-metre walk from the entrance of the cave along a subterranean riverbed. No colour is used to render the subjects – horses, ibex, stags and bison – just a dark outline and shading to give body to the drawings, executed with a "crayon" made of bison fat and manganese oxide. They present an extraordinary mix of bold impressionistic strokes and delicate attention to detail: nostrils, pupils and tendons are all drawn in.
The village of ALLIAT, right across the valley from Niaux, is home to the Grotte de la Vache (90min guided tours: April– June, Sept & school holidays 2.30 & 4pm; July & Aug daily 10am–5.30pm; otherwise by arrangement; 05.61.05.95.06, 
www.grotte-de-la-vache.org ; €9), a relatively rare example of an inhabited cave where you can observe hearths, embossed bones, tools and other remnants in situ. The area's third cave, the Grotte de Bédeilhac (same tour length and schedule as de la Vache, plus every Sun at 3pm; €8) above BÉDEILHAC village is reached by a different road out of Tarascon, the D618 towards Saurat; after 5km, the cave entrance yawns in the Soudour ridge. Inside are examples of every known technique of Paleolithic art; while not as immediately powerful as at Niaux, its diversity – including modelled stalagmites and mud reliefs of beasts – compensates.