grottes d'arcy-sur-cure

Fantastic 1 1/2 hour tour with guide inside the cave to where the wall paintings are. Excellent commentary

Definitely a must-see in Burgundy. You can come really close to the ancient paintings, which is really impressive.Only to be visited on a guided tour, the tours in French start every hour. If you would like to have a guide speaking another language you should check in advance.

When you compare pictures from the cave available online and the present look of the cave you come to a conclusion that something's wrong with The paintings inside. The cave is very dark and most of its beauty is very poorly exposed. You get info in English but it's difficult to read it in the darkness (and the French guide, who of course speaks only French, does not allow you to use a led torch). Cave paintings are quite interesting but you're unable watch them properly. We were very disappointed - better watch online pictures of the paintings and save your time & money for other Burgundy attractions (e.g. there are Saint More cliffs & grottos in the vicinity with a nice walking route - approx. 3 km long from Saint More village)

Fascinating cave with prehistoric paintings of mammoths and other animals, and impressive stalagmites and stalactites. We were promised a tour in English, but the guide presented mainly in French, with only a couple of short sentences in English – we surely missed lots of detail. Fortunately, about halfway through our tour an English-only group caught up with us, and we shifted to that group. What a difference! Our new guide, Shayla (?) from the UK was enthusiastic and a font of information. Biggest problem was that she moved her flashlight too quickly from the drawings, but she was very receptive to questions and requests to shine the light again. Unfortunately, you can't go right up to most of the drawings and most are hard to see from the viewing distance. Would love a longer, more detailed tour with opportunity to study more of the drawings.

We came there and it was closed. Seems like are closed from 12 pm to 2 pm. Usually attractions do not close down during their lunch but make note that this one does. The employees were inside but not conducting tours during these hours. We actually waited for an hour and then decided to leave because the tours given are in French. Probably an interesting attraction but not understanding French and at 8 Euros, not worth it. Just thought it was important to let people know about the closing at lunch.

We took the cave tour off season so there were only six of us on the tour. My French wasn't good enough to keep up with the tour guide but there was a helpful sheet in English describing all the rooms (hint: read it beforehand and as it is too dark inside the cave to read) and the patter seemed to be mainly the usual about stalagmites, stalactites, drapery, how long it takes to form, etc. The cave itself was quite good with some nice formations and as an added bonus some bats and a big pile of bat guano. But the highlight is definitely the cave paintings which really are amazing: 28,000 years old. You only get to see about five of them but they are worth the trip. As others have noted, it is cold inside so wear a warm jacket. And if you have extra time, be sure to follow the walk on the outside of the cave along the river to see the grottoes.

We were driving down to the south of France, and we'd pre-planned to visit the Grottes D'Arcy.We arrived on an incredibly hot day, around 38C!! Phew! The prospect of cool caves was certainly an incentive to visit. We parked up first and had a little picnic before walking to the entrance building.We paid, and sat and waited for the tour. The tour guide came across to us, and explained that it would be 13C in the caves and that we would be cold. She was obviously concerned for our little ones, and offered warm fleeces to borrow. The reality is that the temperature was perfect for all of us, and a welcome relief from the incredible heat outside.The same lady guide was very helpful to us, allowing us to enter with the pushchair through some alternate doors (no steps). As the tour progressed we folded the pushchair, and carried our baby. The guide spoke predominantly in French for obvious reasons... hey we're in France :-) but did give us brief catch ups in English as to what she'd been explaining to the French guests. The caves were huge, and were very impressive, and it was certainly worth the visit. We all enjoyed the tour.As to the rock paintings, none of us could really make them out if I'm totally honest. Not that we're collectively blind, but perhaps you'd have to be much closer to see them, I don't know.Recommended to all really.Thanks for reading.

Nearly peed my pants at the reviewer who took issue with the level of artistic merit in pro-magnon man's drawing skills. This is a great place. The caves are superb. It's 12 degrees C so you need a coat - but they have a whole bunch of spares you can borrow.

The caves were excellent and very interesting, however, the guide made all the difference;he was really lovely, translating everything into English for us when he didn't need to.

The caves have some impressive rock formations. We went on a wet day when it seemed a good idea to be inside. I was keen to see the cave paintings but the size of the group made it difficult to see much which was a great pity as the little I could see was interesting. Also, as others have said, the commentary is mostly in French - unsurprisingly - so wasn't much good to me. Worth a visit if weather is bad.

These are the third oldest caves in the world - with original paintings. Fascinating tour of the cave and you can get very close to the paintings. Easy walking for around an hour or so. A MUST when visiting the area. Guides are very helpful and learned.

We were told that our tour guide would be able to give us an English translation. We were four English, the French were thirty in number. The guide's English was poor at best and in that forty-five minute tour, the English portion was probably all of two minutes.

Nice place to visit if the weather is terrible. the interior of the caves stay the same temp year round

We were impressed by the Cro-Magnon cave art in pristine condition and the informative and knowledgable guide.

Very interesting tour of a cave full of stalactite and stalagmite formations. I wouldn't recommend this tour for children, but for geology and geography enthusiasts it is a must to visit. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and informative, offering multi lingual translations in English and French. Definitely worth a visit if you are in this lovely area of France.