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South of France blog |
On safari at the bison farm At the farm, I soon forget what continent I am on. Our safari bus is a rickety trailer pulled along in bottom gear by a Massey-Ferguson tractor. We crawl past African Watusi cattle, their heads weighed down by horns a metre long, and a herd of Père David’s deer from China which eye us nervously from a shrinking waterhole.
We rattle over a cattle grid and grind our way through a section of sparse oak woodland. The trees stop abruptly and the Pyrenees shimmer in the distance. Something catches my eye to the left, three silhouettes in a line where emerald green grass meets faultless blue sky. There is no mistaking the identity of this beast. The line of its back rises towards bulging shoulders and a massive horned head. For an instant, I forget the sunshine and think of the dark caves where I have seen this exact profile drawn or etched on the walls.  Hunted for half-a-million years We inch our way forward and more bison come into view. In the wild, the sight of a human would send them galloping away into the distance, un understandable reaction when you remember that Tautavel Man was hunting them half-a-million years ago, and that our more recent ancestors drove them to the verge of extinction in both Europe and North America during the 20th century. Humans have long been the bison’s principal predator, but the bison was rarely man’s principal prehistoric prey. Through all the different strata of the Caune de l’Arago, bison bones represent at most 10% of prey animals. They are far outnumbered by – depending on the strata – horse, deer, muskox, reindeer or wild sheep.  Tough characters Based on observations of wild bison in North America where they face predators such as grizzly bears and wolves, we know that these animals stand firm in a group and face their enemy, horns at the ready. But should they choose to run, the bison is as fast as a horse and it can maintain a top speed of around 60 kilometres per hour for much longer than an equine. Despite weighing up to a tonne, it can do a standing jump higher than my head, pirouette on the spot and swim across raging torrents. Seen in the wintry landscapes of the last Ice Age with their hot breath steaming in the bitter air, they must have inspired a mixture of fear and esteem, or even veneration, emotions which were subsequently expressed on the walls of many a prehistoric cave.
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 Occitanie has played a central role in our understanding of prehistory, and Ariège boasts more prehistoric caves than any other department in France. Over a period of several months last year, I visited several of the ones that are open to the public. The prehistorians who were involved in the discovery or interpretation of these grottes were in many cases the same internationally renowned experts who explored even more famous caves which lie just outside my region (Lascaux, Les Eyzies and the Grotte de Chauvet, for example). They included people like Émile Cartailhac who, in 1882, took up a post at the faculty of science in Toulouse and became the first academic in France to teach prehistoric archaeology. And a young priest called Henri Breuil who, over the next 60 years, would become even more influential than Cartailhac. And more recently, Jean Clottes, the man who was called upon to assess the Grotte de Chauvet when it was rediscovered in 1994. Caune de l’Arago and the Tautavel museum of prehistory The village of Tautavel is a mere 20 minutes inland from the A9 just north of Perpignan. The museum is highly informative, although some visitors may find it rather dated. As for the cave, the Caune de l’Arago is the one exception on my list: you cannot go inside unless you are accepted to participate in the summer dig, an annual event which started in 1964.  To reach the cave, drive a couple of kilometres north of Tautavel to Les Gorges du Gouleyrous. Here, the Verdouble emerges from limestone cliffs a hundred metres high and forms a shallow pool roughly the size of a football pitch. This is an idyllic and popular spot for a swim (in principle this is prohibited, thus making the presence of an obligatory car park with a ticket collector rather unexpected). The Caune de l’Arago is a couple of hundred metres above the river, and although you cannot go inside, most of the cave is visible through the iron bars that protect it between each season’s dig. Just inside the bars, a diagram shows the cave in cross-section and explains why it is of such exceptional scientific interest. The hillside curves over a lip at the cave entrance, and then the floor slopes down towards the interior before rising up again to create a bowl. This underground hollow has acted as a time trap. Over a period of 600,000 years (from 700,000 to 100,000 years ago), it captured 16 metres of sediment, and contained within the different layers are human remains, the bones of the animals they hunted and ate, the tools they made, and pollen and seeds that blew in with the wind or were carried in by humans and other creatures. Five metres of sediment remain to be excavated.  Five-hundred-and-sixty thousand years ago, a child died in this cave. In 2018, one of its milk teeth was unearthed by archaeologists, and this tooth is the oldest human remain yet found in France. But the cave owes most of its fame to Tautavel Man, the hunter in his early 20s who spent time here with his family 450,000 years ago, and parts of whose skull was dug up in 1971. A copy of the front of his skull is displayed in the museum and the original is the oldest human face discovered in Europe. More recently, objects a mere 5,000 years old have been discovered outside the entrance.  Both Tautavel Man and the child belonged to the species homo erectus which arrived in this area around a million years ago. Although they walked upright and had an anatomy not dissimilar to our own, they are not thought to be our direct ancestors. Instead, homo erectus evolved into Neanderthal man who, in Europe, became extinct after having lived alongside our own species, homo sapiens, for several thousand years. Both species lived at the Caune de l’Arago, although perhaps not at the same time because the sedimentary layers include long periods with no trace of human activity. FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO READ OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS POST:
Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 1: Grotte d’Aurignac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 2: Grotte de Niaux Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 3: Grotte de Bédeilhac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 4: Grotte de Gargas Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 5: Grotte de Mas d’Azil  Occitanie has played a central role in our understanding of prehistory, and Ariège boasts more prehistoric caves than any other department in France. Over a period of several months last year, I visited several of the ones that are open to the public. The prehistorians who were involved in the discovery or interpretation of these grottes were in many cases the same internationally renowned experts who explored even more famous caves which lie just outside my region (Lascaux, Les Eyzies and the Grotte de Chauvet, for example). They included people like Émile Cartailhac who, in 1882, took up a post at the faculty of science in Toulouse and became the first academic in France to teach prehistoric archaeology. And a young priest called Henri Breuil who, over the next 60 years, would become even more influential than Cartailhac. And more recently, Jean Clottes, the man who was called upon to assess the Grotte de Chauvet when it was rediscovered in 1994. Grotte de Mas d’Azil Lost in gentle hills to the west of Pamiers. the most astonishing aspect of the Grotte de Mas d’Azil is that you can drive right through it on the D119. For a more relaxed visit, leave your vehicle in the car park just beyond the upstream entrance, maybe pause at the café for a refreshment and then stroll underground alongside the river until you reach the ticket office and entrance to the prehistoric section.  Although the road seems out of place, its construction in the 1850s was the first step towards the discovery of the cavern’s archaeological importance. That first road was swept away by a flood in 1875, so it was rebuilt higher up. This second tranche of works unearthed prehistoric objects such as bones, tools and weapons, and given the site’s easy access, it is perhaps unsurprising that it soon attracted private collectors as well as geologists and archaeologists. In 1902 Henri Breuil discovered the first cave paintings. More rock art has been discovered since – both painted and engraved – but at Mas d’Azil, the greatest interest lies in the objects.  Among the most intriguing finds is a tooth carved with an ibex on each side. A fine piece of work, no doubt, but it was the tooth itself that caught the eye of the archaeologists: it belonged to a sperm whale. Now, even in prehistoric times there were no sperm whales anywhere near Mas d’Azil. The presence of this tooth, and the wide range of materials, styles and techniques used to make many of the other objects found here suggest that Mas d’Azil was an important trading centre, or at least a communications hub through which Stone Age traders passed regularly. Many of the other objects found in this cave (or in some cases, copies) are on display at the Museum of Prehistory in the village of Le Mas d’Azil a couple of kilometres downstream. FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO READ OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS POST:
Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 1: Grotte d’Aurignac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 2: Grotte de Niaux Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 3: Grotte de Bédeilhac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 4: Grotte de Gargas Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 6: Caune de l’Arago and the Tautavel museum of prehistory  Occitanie has played a central role in our understanding of prehistory, and Ariège boasts more prehistoric caves than any other department in France. Over a period of several months last year, I visited several of the ones that are open to the public. The prehistorians who were involved in the discovery or interpretation of these grottes were in many cases the same internationally renowned experts who explored even more famous caves which lie just outside my region (Lascaux, Les Eyzies and the Grotte de Chauvet, for example). They included people like Émile Cartailhac who, in 1882, took up a post at the faculty of science in Toulouse and became the first academic in France to teach prehistoric archaeology. And a young priest called Henri Breuil who, over the next 60 years, would become even more influential than Cartailhac. And more recently, Jean Clottes, the man who was called upon to assess the Grotte de Chauvet when it was rediscovered in 1994. Grotte de Gargas The Grotte de Gargas lies in the foothills of the central Pyrenees south of the A64 between Saint-Gaudens and Lannemezan. When humans lived here between 28,000 and 24,000 years ago, there were two separate caves, each with its own small entrance. In the 19th century, someone decided to connect them by a tunnel for reasons of tourism. Today, visitors come in through the upper cave and exit via the lower entrance. Both caves contain paintings, but only the lower one has handprints.  With a total of 231 handprints, the Grotte de Gargas contains 30% of all known handprints in Europe, and on a single wall near what is today the exit, archaeologists have counted 137, one yellow, the rest black or red. Inevitably, Breuil and Cartailhac were the first people to carry out a detailed inspection. In a report written after their second visit in 1907, they noted a peculiarity that has continued to generate hypotheses ever since: many of these handprints are missing a couple of phalanges from a finger or two, or sometimes all the hand’s fingers were mutilated in this way. As with all works of prehistoric cave art, other mysteries include who produced them and why. The second of these questions is still in search of a plausible and generally accepted answer. As for the first, research in the last decade has come up with some curious findings. The crucial difference between a handprint and, say, a painting of a bison is that one can deduce the gender and age of the artist. For example, modern men tend to have longer ring fingers than index fingers, while the opposite is true for women. This variation was more pronounced among our prehistoric ancestors, and a ten year research programme of handprints around the world concluded that around three-quarters of them belonged to females. And then in 2022, a Spanish study found that most of the artists had held their hands a short distance away from the wall, a technique that creates a slightly three-dimensional effect and enlarges the hand. As a result, they concluded that around a quarter were produced by children between the ages of two and twelve. Talking of children, Gargas divides its visitors into groups of 25 and I was tagged onto the second half a busload of eight-year-olds. I have never before seen children so captivated by works of art. FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO READ OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS POST:
Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 1: Grotte d’Aurignac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 2: Grotte de Niaux Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 3: Grotte de Bédeilhac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 5: Grotte de Mas d’Azil Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 6: Caune de l’Arago and the Tautavel museum of prehistory  Occitanie has played a central role in our understanding of prehistory, and Ariège boasts more prehistoric caves than any other department in France. Over a period of several months last year, I visited several of the ones that are open to the public. The prehistorians who were involved in the discovery or interpretation of these grottes were in many cases the same internationally renowned experts who explored even more famous caves which lie just outside my region (Lascaux, Les Eyzies and the Grotte de Chauvet, for example). They included people like Émile Cartailhac who, in 1882, took up a post at the faculty of science in Toulouse and became the first academic in France to teach prehistoric archaeology. And a young priest called Henri Breuil who, over the next 60 years, would become even more influential than Cartailhac. And more recently, Jean Clottes, the man who was called upon to assess the Grotte de Chauvet when it was rediscovered in 1994. Grotte de Bédeilhac The Grotte de Bédeilhac is a few kilometres north-west of Tarascon-sur-Ariège. At first sight, it does little to evoke thoughts of prehistory. A wide concrete floor leads through the cavernous entrance and melts away into darkness. In the half-light, a small aircraft offers a misleading clue to the origins of this unusual surface.  In 1939, Emile Dewoitine planned to shift production of his D520 fighter plane from Toulouse to the Grotte de Bédeilhac where he would be safe from aerial bombardment. He even began some preparatory works, but France surrendered before his plans came to fruition. Then, soon after they took over Vichy France in November 1942, the Germans dug out the first few hundred metres of cave floor, levelled it with concrete and set up an underground workshop where they repaired Junkers 88s. The presence of the light aircraft inside the entrance has helped created the myth that German bombers flew in and out of the cave. The true reason for its presence? In 1972, a test pilot called Georges Bonnet became the first pilot in the world to land in and take off from a cave. Two years later, Bonnet repeated his feat for a film, this time with his aircraft painted in the colours of the Luftwaffe. The plane on display today is the same model, but it was assembled on site using spare parts in 2010.
For me, the highlight of the visit was the presence of two positive handprints. They are called ‘positive’ because they were made by coating the hand with pigment before placing it on a surface, in this case a stalagmite. Examples of positive handprints are rare. Around 90 percent are negative, meaning that the person making them placed his or her hand against a wall and blew dried powder or pigment mixed with water through a hollow bone or reed, or even directly from the mouth, to create a stencilled outline. If you want to see negative handprints, the best place in the world is the Grotte de Gargas. FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO READ OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS POST:
Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 1: Grotte d’Aurignac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 2: Grotte de Niaux Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 4: Grotte de Gargas Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 5: Grotte de Mas d’Azil Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 6: Caune de l’Arago and the Tautavel museum of prehistory  Occitanie has played a central role in our understanding of prehistory, and Ariège boasts more prehistoric caves than any other department in France. Over a period of several months last year, I visited several of the ones that are open to the public. The prehistorians who were involved in the discovery or interpretation of these grottes were in many cases the same internationally renowned experts who explored even more famous caves which lie just outside my region (Lascaux, Les Eyzies and the Grotte de Chauvet, for example). They included people like Émile Cartailhac who, in 1882, took up a post at the faculty of science in Toulouse and became the first academic in France to teach prehistoric archaeology. And a young priest called Henri Breuil who, over the next 60 years, would become even more influential than Cartailhac. And more recently, Jean Clottes, the man who was called upon to assess the Grotte de Chauvet when it was rediscovered in 1994. Grotte de Niaux The Grotte de Niaux on the outskirts of Tarascon-sur-Ariège is famous for its prehistoric paintings of bison, deer, ibex, horses and even a fish. The best-known and most-visited part of the complex is a spacious chamber called Le Salon Noir. It lies deep inside the mountain, 800 metres from the main entrance. At the time of my first visit ten years ago, I was struck by the quantity of graffiti left by more recent visitors. Most of them had been cleaned off by the time I made my second visit, but one specimen has been retained as a historical relic in its own right, a signature left in Le Salon Noir by Ruben de la Vialle in 1660.  A veteran tourist guide from Niaux claims to have identified 16 other examples of Ruben de la Vialle’s signature in different parts of the cave. Why he came so often is a mystery. In the summer of 1660, he was waiting for his exam results, having studied for a doctorate in both civil and canonical law. Despite his education, Ruben had no way of knowing or even suspecting the age or significance of the paintings at Niaux. In fact, the religious side of his education made it inconceivable. A few years earlier, an Irish archbishop called James Ussher had, after long and careful study of the Old Testament, calculated with extraordinary precision that the world had been created on 23 October 4004 BCE. It would have been both heretical and illogical for Ruben to imagine that the paintings at Niaux were at least 10,000 years older than the world itself. Their importance only became recognised in 1906 when an infantry officer called Jules Molard and his two sons visited Le Salon Noir and decided to tell Émile Cartailhac about their ‘discovery’. Cartailhac and Breuil explored the cave in the autumn of the same year. Directly opposite Niaux on the left bank of the Vicdessos river lies a smaller prehistoric cave. If the Grotte de Niaux was something of an artist’s studio, the Grotte de la Vache was more of a residential property, and the paintings in the former may have been produced by the people who lived in the latter. The Grotte de la Vache is privately owned and it was closed when I was there in 2022 as it had been for several years before that. However, the area outside the cave entrance was fenced off and building works were in progress. Reports in the local press suggest that a reopening is planned, but the date has yet to be confirmed. FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO READ OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS POST:
Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 1: Grotte d’Aurignac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 3: Grotte de Bédeilhac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 4: Grotte de Gargas Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 5: Grotte de Mas d’Azil Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 6: Caune de l’Arago and the Tautavel museum of prehistory  Occitanie has played a central role in our understanding of prehistory, and Ariège boasts more prehistoric caves than any other department in France. Over a period of several months last year, I visited several of the ones that are open to the public. The prehistorians who were involved in the discovery or interpretation of these grottes were in many cases the same internationally renowned experts who explored even more famous caves which lie just outside my region (Lascaux, Les Eyzies and the Grotte de Chauvet, for example). People like Émile Cartailhac who, in 1882, took up a post at the faculty of science in Toulouse and became the first academic in France to teach prehistoric archaeology. Or a young priest called Henri Breuil who, over the next 60 years, would become even more influential than Cartailhac. And more recently, Jean Clottes, the man who was called upon to assess the Grotte de Chauvet when it was rediscovered in 1994. Grotte d’Aurignac The village of Aurignac lies 60 kilometres south-west of Toulouse and the eponymous cave is 500 metres to the west of town beside he main road. In Aurignac itself, there is a large and modern interpretation centre which provides an excellent overview of prehistory in general. The cave and the centre are connected by a footpath.  Aurignac is an unpretentious cave barely the size of my garage, but it has played an outsized role in the development of prehistory as a scientific discipline. In 1860, an amateur scientist called Edouard Lartet found human remains and tools inside this cave along with the bones of various extinct animals such as the cave bear and woolly rhinoceros. These discoveries, combined with others he made in the Dordogne, led Lartet to conclude that modern humans must have been living in Europe long before anyone had suspected. It took a few more years for his ideas to be accepted, but eventually his discoveries at Aurignac were recognised as examples of the oldest modern human culture in Europe, subsequently named Aurignacian, and covering the period between 43,000 and 26,000 years ago (these dates vary slightly in different parts of Europe).  There is little to see at the cave itself, but if you go there after the interpretation centre, you will find it a pleasant place to reflect on what you have learned about our distant ancestors. At the time of my visit (June 2022), I was lucky enough to meet a team of young archaeologists who were busy excavating the bank a few metres to the left of the cave in search of more prehistoric evidence. FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO READ OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS POST:
Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 2: Grotte de Niaux Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 3: Grotte de Bédeilhac Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 4: Grotte de Gargas Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 5: Grotte de Mas d’Azil Prehistoric caves of Occitanie 6: Caune de l’Arago and the Tautavel museum of prehistory
The route – an overview STAGE 1: Toulouse to Enveitg by train (2hrs50) via Pamiers, Foix, Ax-les-Thermes etc). STAGE 2: Enveitg to Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains by train (2hrs45) OR Enveitg to Bourg-Madame by foot (1hr30 via Puigcerda) AND Bourg-Madame to Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains by train (2hrs30). STAGE 3: Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains to Perpignan by train (50 mins). STAGE 4: Perpignan to Toulouse by train (2hrs15-2hrs30: you may need to change at Narbonne, and other major stops include Carcassonne and Castelnaudary).
Practicalities IMPORTANT!!! Stage 2 uses the narrow-gauge Le Train Jaune. This line will be closed for maintenance between 27 February and 28 April 2023. Otherwise, two trains a day run throughout the year. In summer, at least half the carriages are open, great for views and photos. TICKETS: For our most recent voyage (14 & 15 February 2023), we bought our tickets as we went along using the SNCF mobile app, and the total price was , a real bargain for a journey of around 470 kilometres.TICKETS: For our most recent voyage (14 & 15 February 2023), we bought our tickets as we went along using the SNCF mobile app, and the total price was €50 per person, a real bargain for a journey of around 470 kilometres.
EATING AND SLEEPING: Enveitg has an international railway station: as well as the SNCF line to Toulouse and Le Train Jaune to Villefranche-de-Conflent, there is a RENFE line to Barcelona. But because it has a population of only 637, Enveitg offers few places to stay and even fewer places to eat. This is why we walk 4 kilometres along a pleasant track to cross the border to Puigcerda where there are numerous bars, restaurants and hotels. From Puigcerda, it is another 1.6 kilometres to cross the border back into France at Bourg-Madame where you can pick up Le Train Jaune. Both times, we have eaten in Puigcerda but slept in Bourg-Madame in a simple but clean hotel called the Cedisol Cerdagne that is a two-minute walk from the train station. This naturally involves multiple border crossings, and right next to the old border post between Bourg-Madame and Puigcerda is a bar called La Confianza, not much to look at from the outside, but the interior opens out into a succession of quirky lounges, dining areas, outdoor courtyard and terrace, cosy corners and a winter fireplace where we enjoyed a Saint Valentine’s dinner. For a more upmarket stay, the Hotel del Prado, where we enjoyed a fine dinner on our first trip, is a 15-minute walk from Bourg-Madame railway station.
The town of Limoux lies on the river Aude 25 kilometres upstream from Carcassonne. It has two claims to international fame: its carnival (currently in full swing) and its sparkling wine.  The longest carnival in the world Venice may boast the oldest and Rio the largest, but Limoux claims to have the longest carnival in the world. Around 600 dancers belonging to 30 different troupes ensure that these festivities can be sustained three times a day every weekend - plus Mardi Gras – from the end of January until early April (more precisely, in 2023 the dates are 15 January until 26 March). The Carnival of Limoux is unusually compact. Here, there are no carnival floats, no long parades. Events unfold in the intimacy of the medieval square with a graceful beauty which has been described as a miraculous combination of immobility and movement.
Fake news or hard news? The first part of this legend gained a little more credibility when a document was discovered in 2013. Dating from 1544, it is a ledger kept by the Limoux town treasurer, and in an entry made on 25 October 1544, he records that various wines were supplied to Sieur d’Arques, and among them were four pints of blanquette to accompany the good lord’s dinner (today, Sieur d’Arques is the name of the main cooperative and it is an excellent place for a dégustation). Unfortunately, other historians soon pointed out that there was nothing in the treasurer’s ledger to say that the wine was effervescent, or even that it came from Limoux. Blanquette was the old name for a local type of vine which we now call mauzac, and any wine derived from the mauzac or blanquette vine was also called blanquette, and although this vine was primarily cultivated in the Midi, it was not exclusive to Limoux.
A longer version of this article was first published in Issue 32 of The Good Life in France Magazine.
If you would like to know more about this estimable organisation, please visit: https://cancersupportfrance.org
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Colin Duncan Taylor"I have been living in the south of France for 20 years, and through my books and my blog, I endeavour to share my love for the history and gastronomy of Occitanie and the Pyrenees."  |
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