2005 Letter from PECHE MERLE: Early the next morning we set out on a twenty-one mile side trip from Cahors to the Grotte du Pech Merle. Do not even ask what the name means. No one really knows.
To prevent the fragile paintings from deteriorating, only 700 people per day are allowed in. Fortunately for us, all the school children in France are in their classrooms now, and it is possible to get in without a reservation (which are sold up to a year in advance). As we got closer to the cave, we began to see several groups of back-packers hiking. We had not seen any walkers until then. The area where the grotto is situated is impressively rocky with high hills and sheer cliffs, as well as lots of caves.
The Grotto is an enormous cave. It has all the usual physical properties of deep caves with the added miracle of many wall paintings that those extremely artful painters had created 30,000 years to 28,000 years ago. The Grotto’s original paintings are of animals like horses, bison, deer, aurochs, bears, and mammoths. In addition this cave also had paintings of people—a wounded man with spears in his body, and a woman. Apparently, their technique consisted of working in near darkness, filling their mouths with ground pigments like red ocher and black manganese mixed with water and blowing this "paint" onto the walls and ceiling of the cave. While some animals were created using only a few strokes, others were more complicated. And in some cases they chiseled the outlines of animals into the rock face. And these artists, like any modern artist, clearly wanted to be associated with their work. They left outlines of their hands near their creations, by holding a hand against the wall and blowing pigment at it. Photography was not allowed, so I have no pictures to show of these awe-inspiring cave paintings. But an internet site exists. Google Grotte du Pech Merle and you should find it.
We’re not sure whether we walked all four kilometers (two plus miles) of the cave, because the guide spoke only French and although we had an English description of the various sights in the cave, it didn’t specify whether or not our tour covered the entire length. It was long enough for us. You had to walk to the end of the guided tour and then back because there is only one entrance area. It was up and down dimly lit stairs and ramps, past all kinds of strange looking formations, and large areas of paintings, which the guide delineated by using a laser light. Some of what he said we understood, but we certainly did miss a lot.
After our visit we had our lunch and then went into the little museum on the site. By the time we watched the movie about the Grotto (sub-titled in English), it was getting late. We had to re-trace our steps to Cahors. We headed a little way north.
