Niaux and Minerve

So work has been keeping me fairly busy the last couple weeks. The artists from the last fortnight are gone as of today but with them I was luck enough to head out on a couple excursions to places in the area I hadn't seen yet (which by the way are still numerous). On my birthday May 13th, I went with the guests to Niaux its a bit of a drive I think I fell asleep for most of it (I was not driving!) Here are some of the oldest cave paintings in the world discovered fairly recently (the 70s) although it is apparent that locals had known about them for centuries as there is graffiti all along the inner cave walls dating back as far as 1602. 

 A Picture of Niaux.

 Now we weren't actually allowed to take photos once inside the cave in order to help preserve the art. As a matter of fact it was very strict, we had to use special flash lights, and at the art points we had to al turn our lights off and in the dark trust our guide to find the one single lamp she would use to show us the art. The drawings are spectacular and quite complex which is why they are so famous. Many of the other cave art that has been found dating back to the Palaeolithic era is rather simplistic at least in comparison, consisting primarily of stick figures and animals.  He in Grotte de Niaux however the art is only in specific areas of the cave, where the echo is particularly crisp. Likely this indicated a spiritual connection between the art and music. Not to mention why the art is so deep in the cave and not at the entrance where the people would have sought brief refuge, clearly the location was well thought out. Further more it appears as though the artists used the forms and lines of the natural cave wall to create shape, texture line and perspective in their own art, as if they saw the animal in the wall before they began to paint it (as though the spirit of the animal was already there). Part of the cave can only be accessed by diving under water and so I did not see the whole thing there is a very famous muskrat on the other side. It is curious because all the other animals in almost all cave painting of this era (including Niaux) are of large powerful animals such as the buffalo or horses.
One last thing that makes Niaux paintings interesting is that we know they were not depicting everyday life. There seems to be a higher purpose of thought that went into the work. There are almost never any people, and if there are it is blurry clearly having almost no attention paid to the painting of them in comparison to the care in painting the animals. Not to mention there are no corrections, no attempts at making an animal, everyone who was allowed to draw on the wall knew how to draw the animals already and were well practiced before entering the cave. It is likely that shaman or spiritual leaders were the ones coming in to paint, why and to what end we can never know.
Not all the work can be carbon dated but of what can it is known that the works were painted over 1000s of years.

 So after the excitement of my birthday, which was fabulous by the way, I was back at the hotel working. That was until Thursday night of this week so the 22nd, Kristina (just back from cycling in Spain) and I got to tag along to Minerve. Minerve is an absolutely breath taking little town that was once home of a heavily fortified castle held by the Cathars. The Cathars had built a bridge to connect their high up fortress to the river below so that in seige the would be safe from attack and still have water. Unfortunatly the enemy brought catepolts and destroyed the bridge to water, eventually flushed them out and destroyed and pillaged everyone and thing in sight. Yet much of the charm and delight still remains and the medieval homes still stand. There were several sweet artisan shops and little cafes.

 Here is Kristina in front of the town. I had a picture of me somewhere I know its on my instagram if I find it I will add it in later.

...found it 

Then for dinner we went with the guests to a nearby little studio restaurant where the guests had some horribly un-vegan spanish dish with rice and chicken and sausage and crayfish and all other kinds of meat. Lucky for my I got salad, rice, veggies, nuts and olives so I was happy too and it was very delicious:)