Caverne du Pont d'Arc

The biggest replica in the world of a painted cave, the Caverne du Pont-d’Arc recreates the entirety of the Chauvet Cave discovered in 1994, the most important site of prehistoric art ever brought to light.

In a 3,500m2 space in the heart of the Ardèche region, near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, the Caverne presents reproductions of the amazing paintings and engravings found in the Chauvet Cave.

In the midst of the stalagmites and stalactites, enhanced by a play of shadow and light, visitors discover the powerfully moving marks left by the women and men who lived here 36,000 years ago. They have given us their impressions of animals, an artistic tour de force composed of red ochre, engraved by silex, traced with a finger or charcoal and ending with a big fresco of lions showing 92 animals in movement. 

The Caverne du Pont-d’Arc is the fruit of a massive undertaking on the scientific, technological, artistic and commercial levels that brings to the public's eyes the greatest national asset from the prehistoric period in France.

At the end of the 50-minute tour, visitors can lean more at the discovery centre called the Galerie de l’Aurignacien and at the Caverne's educational space. The site also has a restaurant and a gift shop if you want to take home with you a souvenir of the distant past.