Lascaux IV cave paintings

The cave of Lascaux, discovered in 1940, holds some of the finest prehistoric paintings in the world: bulls, horses and deer painted about 17,000 years ago. The original cave closed in 1963 to protect the paintings, but Lascaux IV is a full-size, astonishingly accurate replica of the whole cave, with an excellent museum about the art and the people who made it.

Visits are by guided tour; book ahead in summer. The Vézère valley around it has many more prehistoric sites, such as the Font-de-Gaume cave, which still shows original paintings to small groups.