See what you missed last year- we had a great time and if you might like me to run this one again for 2011 then let me know:

Cave paintings and the ancient peoples of Les Eyzies, France

4 days B&B basis, £550. 

Leader: Dr Jill Eyers

A four day tour to the Dordogne (Perigord) region of France. Our base is Les Eyzies in a comfortable and typically French hotel. The family-run hotel has all expected facilities and a swimming pool. The area is beautiful and the cuisine is spectacular. Add all this to the remarkable archaeology of the region - and this will be a wonderful trip!

View from our hotel: the Hotel de France, Les Eyzies

Included in the price: return flight to Bordeaux with all taxes paid, coach transfers to and from the airport in France, coach transport for the day out to Montignac/Lascaux, hotel B&B, all entrance fees to sites (see list below), handouts, guided tour, canoe excursion down the Vezere river.

Not included: lunches, evening meals and travel insurance. Single supplement: sorry the hotel imposes a single supp of £60.

The Vezere river

This beautiful part of the French countryside has been home to people for over 400,000 years. We will enjoy the countryside on guided walks through the limestone gorge and along the tranquil Vezere river. (The Vezere is a tributary to the Dordogne River). We will canoe down a small section of the river past the famous Neanderthal location of Le Moustier - where the name of 'Mousterian tools' originated. During the visit we will re-track the steps of ancient people from the Neanderthals to the Cro-Magnons to Homo-Sapiens - and discover that, indeed for many of us in the UK, Les Eyzies is the location of our genetic roots!

Cave painting from Lascaux

Programme: There is a strong archaeological theme for this tour, with a little geology thrown in. It is also intended that we thoroughly enjoy the French lifestyle and scenery while we are there!

We will visit many of the best caves in the area to view cave paintings and carvings, geological formations and discover more about life during the last 400,000 years.

Day 1: Arrive just before lunchtime. Unpack and have lunch followed by a walk to explore Les Eyzies and then along the Vezere. Circular 'gorge walk' led by Jill. Late afternoon/early evening, as preferred, an introductory talk to the area and its history.

Day 2: Visit the Musee de la Prehistoire (am), lunch in Les Eyzies and then the Grotte du Grand Roc and the Laugerie Basse sites (pm).

Day 3: La Roque St Christophe, Cap Blanc, Lascaux, with lunch in Medieval Montagnac.

Day 4: Canoe from Le Moustier to Les Eyzies along the Vezere with a French style picnic lunch en route! Then a visit to the famous Cro-Magnon and continuing excavation site of L'Abri Pataud.

Day 5: Depart am for flight home.

Contact Jill if you need more information or to put your name on the list: jee8@tutor.open.ac.uk

Here are some more images to whet your appetite!

Limeuil - a Medieval village              The bridge at Montagnac

Images from Lascaux 1 of the many excellent cave sites we visit.

La Grotte du Grand Roc has a large variety of very unusual calcite formations.

The museum and other exhibits in many of the caves reveal a huge variety of tools and other artefacts. These give us a really good insight into Palaeolithic life. Questions we look at are: how did they live, what did they eat, what did they look like, how did they light fires, what did they wear and how much like us were they?