Grotte chauvet 2 - Ardèche — Attraction in Largentière

Chauvet is an extraordinary place. The actual cave has been sealed. However, at great expense, a 3D scan was made, and a faithful reproduction was created to allow everyone to share in these spectacular discoveries. It is obvious that no expense was spared to make the new "cave" look and feel like the original. The paintings, the oldest known by humans, dating roughly to 37500 BC, evoke a powerful emotion that connects us to our ancient ancestors.

The visit itself is made in small groups with a guide that leave every 5 minutes. When you buy your ticket, your tour time is scheduled. Don't be late. Everyone wears headphones so you can clearly hear everything the guide says, while blocking out extraneous noise. The visit feels all the more intimate and personal. There are opportunities along the way to ask questions. Our guide was knowledgeable and friendly. My only complaint is that at times, I felt a little rushed to move in to the next viewpoint when I would have preferred to linger. That's a personal preference. However, I understand that they must get a lot of people through the cave every day. As it was the visit lasted about 50 minutes. I learned later that there are evening visits that are about 1:10 long which would provide that extra time.

The entire complex is well designed and easy to navigate. There is an intriguing exhibit on lions throughout history and varying cultures. There is also a small gallery that puts the cave into perspective within natural history. There is a nice gift shop that is easily avoided, if one prefers. There is a restaurant featuring local food and a snack bar. We tried a couple of dishes from the restaurant and everything was absolutely delicious. This is France, after all. The prices were also quite reasonable.

I recommend buying your tickets in advance online so you can have a better selection of tour times. In the summer season, they may sell out if you try to buy when you arrive.

For a powerful and moving look into human history, you cannot go wrong with a visit to Chauvet. Just...

BE AWARE! - For those that plan on using public transport:

It is quite cumbersome and timely to get here.

We travelled from Paris to Vallon Pont D'Arc via train and bus, as suggested on the website. We had to wait one hour for the bus in Montèlimar, despite taking the earliest TGV available departing from Paris. The bus ride from Montèlimar to Vallon takes about 80 minutes.

FROM Vallon, however, there are no public transportation; taxis are your best bet, but you would be hard pressed to find one that would come within an hour. The tourist office in Vallon also suggested renting an E-Bike, which would take about 30 minutes going up the mountain.

Due to this, we arrived at Chauvet cave around 2:30 pm which was after our admission window and the next available time slot was at 5pm. Since we had to catch the bus at 4:40 in order to return to Paris, we unfortunately couldn't see the cave and had to resort to viewing the side attractions on the premises.

Admittedly, this is our fault for missing the time window but one of the staff at the ticketing booth was quite short with us and made us feel very unwelcome. Nonetheless, the lady at the giftshop register was very kind and helped us get a taxi back to Vallon. The taxi driver, Marco, is one of the few ride services available in this area and he was accomodating and spoke English - would highly recommend!

All in all, the chief complaint is the lack of public transportation options/availability for tourists. As a Unesco heritage site and a major historical attraction, we expected a better transportation infrastructure as well as more detailed breakdown of what to do from Vallon on the...

Wonderfully done how they made a cave. And a great alternative to preserve the real cave. The attention to detail was amazing. The downside is when they book too much people for a guide session. When you can't stand in the area where the automatic audio turns on because nobody can move ahead due to the amount of people in the room, you're stuck at the back waiting until you can get to the point. As soon as your audio starts because you've entered the area for the audio to start, the rooms light starts dimming and turning off as they want you to move along with the guide. Which is understandable as another group behind us would enter the cave as well. But sad for me as I didn't get to see much, and heard the automatic guide just talk about stuff I could barely see. Perhaps have a maximum in how many people per guide session can join, and not book too much people in one? It would have improved my experience. Other people in the same group as I experienced the same thing. But all in all, it was done relatively well. However since I barely got to see anything, but did see some things, I give my experience here a 3. For the rest of the park it was well done, and a fun place and very educative. For that I give 4 stars. But I can only rate this once. And I stand by my 3 stars in total rating.

To those who want to go an check it out, maybe ask the ticket stand how many people are booked in the hour you want to visit, otherwise my fate is the same as yours. Not sure if that helps anybody. But it is a great place to...