The Lascaux Caves 5 minutes of French

Hi everyone and welcome to 5 Minutes of French Today I'm with Émilie Hi Émilie how are you Hi Sébastien hi everyone Very good thanks And you Great Today we're taking a real leap through time all the way back to prehistoric times Yes because we're going to talk about an extraordinary place —the Lascaux caves Exactly But before I tell you their story I have a quick question for you Émilie and for all of you listening How are the Lascaux caves sometimes referred to A The Museum of Prehistory B The Sistine Chapel of Prehistory C The Cradle of European Art I'd say the Museum of Prehistory but I'm really not sure What do you think Tell us in the comments and we'll dive in So the story begins in 1940 during World War II in a small village in southwestern France Yes four teenagers are walking with their dog near the Lascaux hill when suddenly the dog vanishes into a hole Trying to retrieve it they suddenly discover a cave covered in paintings Picture the scene drawings everywhere on the walls Hundreds of paintings created around 17 000 years ago Yes it's incredible These young people had just made one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century And soon after archaeologists arrived to study the paintings It was realized that these works dated back to the Upper Paleolithic at is the end of prehistory What's fascinating about Lascaux is the beauty and precision of the drawings The animals are enormous sometimes measuring over 4 meters in length Yes and there are about 600 paintings and over 1 000 engravings Artists used natural pigments such as ochre charcoal and manganese ey applied it with their fingers using brushes made from bristles or even blowing paint through a bone tube The most fascinating undoubtedly is the room known as the Bull Room the most famous of all It conveys an astonishing sense of movement As if the animals were coming to life on the walls Yes it's almost prehistoric cinema In any case these works convey a genuine desire to leave a mark—literally Unfortunately as soon as the cave was opened to the public in 1948 things began to get complicated Yes at first thousands of visitors came each day However the heat carbon dioxide and moisture emitted by visitors have damaged the paintings And within a few years mold spots began to appear Thus in 1963 Culture Minister André Malraux decided to close the cave to the public to protect it But since everyone still wanted to see Lascaux we came up with an idea: to create an exact replica of the cave Yes Lascaux 2 opened in 1983 just a few hundred meters from the actual cave The artists recreated the paintings exactly using the same techniques as prehistoric humans And most recently there was Lascaux 4 opened in 2016 It is an even more comprehensive reconstruction with digital projections and an interactive tour Proof that even after 17 000 years Lascaux continues to captivate the entire world Yet despite everything we still don't know who painted these frescoes or why Some researchers believe they were created by shamans Others say they were artists serving their community And what's incredible is that these paintings have endured for thousands of years While they were made in the dark by the light of fat lamps No electricity no paper no modern brushes Yet how masterfully they wield them It's clear Well then it's time to answer the question from the beginning The nickname given to the Lascaux caves is Oh the drumroll please The prehistoric Sistine Chapel Sorry Émilie No Well I'll go to bed a bit smarter tonight Now before we conclude a small vocabulary note We've used the expression "laisser une trace " That means creating something that endures in history or memory And Sébastien used the expression "making a leap through time " at is telling a story about something that happened in a distant past Finally Émilie spoke about coming to life within the context of the cave paintings at Lascaux That means they're so lifelike they almost seem alive That's all for today And you were you familiar with the Lascaux caves Have you ever visited a replica Let us know in the comments And as always you can download the PDF sheet with the transcript and vocabulary It's in the description or on our website francaisavecpierre com Thank you all for listening to this episode See you very soon for a new journey through history