The path of the discovery of Lascaux

[Audio](The discovery of the paintings)

Montignac in September 1940. The main character of this story is named Marcel Ravidat. A big 18 years old boy from a modest family: his father is a worker in a wood factory and his mother is in charge of the house. Marcel has been a mechanic’s apprentice for two years in the garage Pérez on the Rue de Juillet.

But here, everybody called him “the Convict” since the public screening of the movie “les Misérables” under the covered market. He owes this nickname to the young people from the village for whom he embodies the strength and stature of Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo’s novel.

Around Marcel, there is a group who usually runs on the hills as soon as a day off allows it. Actually, at the beginning of this afternoon of the 8th September 1940, Marcel had rung for a gathering. The meeting is set at the wash house located at the end of the Rue du Barri.

Some boys answered the call: André Détrieux, Jean and Jacques Lauzel, Robert and Maurice Queyroi as well as the right arm of Marcel, Louis Perrier who has the same age and is as intrepid as he is.

They brought their dogs with them. Marcel’s dog is called Robot, quite an exotic name at the time but a proof that even from a popular background, his master is aware of the latest novelties.

From now on complete, the group of the convict rushes forward the hills, in search of adventure.

It must be said that there is hardly any other activity for the youth during this month of September 1940.

An insane legend goes around the country for a long time now: some people say that a parchment might indicate the hiding place of a treasure buried there for centuries

audio

[Listen to the testimony of Marcel Ravidat in French] (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/marcel-et-son-chien-robot-decouvrent-un-trou)

On the 8th of September 1940, Montignac did not escape the international events. Even if it is part of the unoccupied France after the installation of the French Demarcation Line, the population of barely 3000 inhabitants before the war had been slashed of the men kept imprisoned.

However, it increased with the reception of 800 refugees from the village of Elsenheim in Alsace, evacuated from the front at the beginning of the hostilities. Some elements in full route of the French army are also stationed around the village centre. It prevails a whole new atmosphere, between confusion and excitement.

The youngsters still enjoy a total freedom, so let’s go back to the group of the convict’s getaway.

On the verge of coming back to the village through the woods of Lascaux, Marcel’s dog Robot, diverted from the group to follow insistently the track of a small animal. He sank in a thicket and never came out.

Intrigued by its barking, Marcel found Robot deep down a hole of around 1 metre depth and hidden by vegetation. At the bottom of it, the dog scratches furiously a smaller orifice.

“I have to get him out of here”, says Marcel. While dragging out Robot, a small stone rolled under his foot and disappeared in the orifice. A surprising echo accompanies this disappearance. The act is repeated several times and confirmed the facts: it is empty underneath…

Called for help, the rest of the group is now around the hole. The orifice is very small but the stones’ throws left no doubts, which makes Maurice Queyroi say “This is the entrance of the tunnel that leads to the manor of Lascaux, the one my mother talked about for so long” and his brother added “it is said that it contains a treasure, a true golden calf !!!”

The crazy legend hits its mark. The fever is rising… Each of them comment on it but the passage is definitely impenetrable, and without a light, what is to be done?

They must face the facts and postpone the exploration.

Audio Several days had gone by since the getaway of the 8th of September. The fever caused by the legend of the tunnel seems to have fallen, except for Marcel who created an equipment that might be useful: a knife cut out from a spring’s blade of a car, and an oil lamp knocked up from a grease pump.

With this makeshift equipment, on Thursday 12th of September, being out of work, Marcel tried to recruit his friends. Jean is working, Louis too but they lend him an oil lamp. As for Maurice, he prefers napping to exploring. Only his little brother Robert wants to follow him. However, on the way they bump into three other boys and decide to turn back, claiming that they are not from the same group.

Marcel knows the three boys, especially the first one. It is Jacques Marsal, 14 years old, whom mother runs the restaurant “le bon accueil”.

He is accompanied by Georges Agniel, known as Jojo, another famous character in Montignac who stays every summer at his grandmother’s on the quay of the waterside of the Vezère River. There is also Simon Coencas, a 13 years old from Paris who has taken refuge for more than a year in Montignac with his family.

What are they doing here? The boys admit to the elder that they had a quarrel with the youngsters from Alsace whose family is established in the farm of the manor of Lascaux. A story of a quarrel to handle regarding their sister, which makes Marcel smile.

“Forget it boys, there is much better to do, follow me… we might have found the entrance to the tunnel of Lascaux”.

They could not resist the request of the convict, nor the attraction of the legend… And even less the existence of a treasure!

And who knows if this this tunnel is really leading to the manor… Never mind, the three boys followed Marcel eagerly.

Listen to the Inventors

[Listen to the testimony of Jacques Marsal on Radio France Périgord in 1986 (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/jacques-raconte-la-rencontre-avant-daller-sur-la-colline)

[Listen to the testimony of Simon Coencas in 2010 (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/simon-raconte-la-rencontre?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

[Audio](https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/8182a]

Thursday 12th of September is a very beautiful end of summer day. On the path leading to the top of the hill, in a single file and on the lookout of his slightest gesture, Georges, Jacques and Simon followed Marcel.

Caution is required because the woods of Lascaux are not entirely uninhabited. Further down, there is the manor that is now far enough. On the other hand, at the end of the path there is the farm of the mother Toulmon and uphill, the farm of the Baudry family. For more discretion, they have to leave the road before its end, then go along the old stone quarry, and finally speed through the woods until the hole. Marcel’s gravelly voice became softer. “Once at the hole we will be out of sight, but before that, keep quiet.”

Once they arrived, the three boys lean over the hole with a discomfited look. There is indeed an orifice at the bottom of the basin, but it is barely 20cm of diameter… It looks nothing like the entrance of an underground passage.

But this does not include Marcel’s motivation whom, helped by his knife, is already trying to clear it. What a surprise: unblocking it reveals bones from a big animal. They will learn later that it was the carcass of Mrs. Toulmon’s donkey, rudely buried there a few years before.

They carried on the effort for more than an hour before the first attempt was possible. Thinner, Jacques is requested to try the passage. But after his feet dangled over the emptiness, seized by anguish, he changed his mind. “Not as brave as you like to make out”, he said later.

Marcel has decided to try, but they need to open out the passage for his wide shoulders to pass through.

One last block cleared and the Convict gauges a bit more the emptiness with his feet. He changed his posture, went back up to turn and, head first, with a lot of contortions, disappeared gradually under the worried eyes of his companions.

Audio

This Thursday 12th of September, after unclogging for an hour, Marcel had slipped underground. He gained a foothold at the end of a small chimney and his first reflex was to get back the matches to light up the oil lamp. The flame reveals a pile of fallen rocks that sinks deeper; he goes into it and crawls on several meters before raising up and tumbling down on the slope. At the bottom of the rock slide, the tunnel seems to widen but the flickering flame is having trouble to pierce the shadows. He goes back to his friends to invite them to go down very carefully. Reunited and huddled around two little sources of light, the boys moved forward into the unknown, their eyes focused on the state of the ground. Then, a narrower hall appears and the light of the lamps starts to stick to the walls. “Look! Here! Strokes of colours.” Jacques’ voice is resonating on the walls. The two lamps are now pointing at the ceiling. They are astonished: on a white and gleaming vault, lines are forming animal shapes magnificently painted. First, a red cow with a black head, horses with a yellow coat and then stags. A few metres after, there is a black bull that seems to spring up the wall and a horse turned backwards. In a complete excitement, they jump from a discovery to another. The first cries of joy are replaced by concern after seeing their lamps flickering and dying several times. It is better to turn round. But there is a new surprise: back into the first room, other paintings appeared and they are tremendous. Four big impressive bulls are dominating a procession of horses and stags! Excitement is rising again but for a short time as the oil lamp becomes scorching hot and is releasing more and more smoke, the stock of matches hitting the rock bottom. Without further delay, they need to go out or they will be imprisoned in a complete darkness into the depths of the Earth.

Back to the fresh air and gathered on the edge of the hole, still in the grip of emotion, it is time to hold a meeting. They decide to come back tomorrow morning, equipped with high-performance headlamps while being very careful to take different ways so they would not arouse curiosity. The origin of these marvelous paintings remains a mystery, but there is no question of talking about it for now. The promise is sealed, but such a secret is quite heavy to carry…

Listen to the Inventors

[Jacques talks about the paintings in 2010 (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/jacques-parle-des-peintures-en-2010?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

[Simon and Georges recount the discovery of the paintings in 2010 (in French).] (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/la-decouverte-des-peintures-par-agniel-et-coencas?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

[Jacques evokes the 12th of September and the discovery of the paintings in 1986 (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/decouverte-des-peintures?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

[Georges recounts the first descent in 2010 (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/premiere-descente?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

[Simon recounts the discovery of the paintings in 2010 (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/decouverte-peintures?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

On the morning of Friday the 13th of September, and as agreed to avoid suspicion, each boy took a different path but around the hole, there is a fifth person: Maurice Coencas, Simon’s brother. The latter could not hold his tongue. He was not the only one. Marcel had to tell his father to justify the fact that he did not go to work. As for Georges, in front of his mother’s questions, even the excuse of an extraordinary discovery did not avoid a remarkable slap, immediate sanction for his lateness.

Therefore, they are five to start the exploration of the cave. This time, under the bright clarity of acetylene lamps, the petrified procession appears in its whole: what an astounding sight! With every swinging of the lamp, the animals appeared and disappeared as if the wall was alive. Under the biggest bull, a new gallery is open: they have to crawl in the low passage that gives access to new decorated big rooms. Buffalos, a big black cow and horses, a stags’ frieze, new images flash up and delight more and more the little group of explorers. A narrowing makes the progression complicated again, but the inspection of the walls reveals a new kind of figure: lines engraved in stone. Still many horses, buffalos but also felines. This part of the cave contains a muddle of painted and engraved figures that need to be decipher thanks to the rays of light. These light games are suddenly interrupted by the voice of the convict:

• “Hey, boys, come here!” At the bottom of a circular room covered with engravings, Marcel has found a new hollow space. A well! This part still unknown implies the acquisition of a rope.

Once collected, an acetylene lamp between his teeth, Marcel ventures into the emptiness. Too short! The rope is too short but the ground is visible. Never mind, Marcel jumps.

• “You’re ok? What do you see?” Rings out a voice.
• “A man, there is a man!”

What the other boys cannot see is that he is painted on the rock! The black drawing, the shining wall and the atmosphere of this place inhabited by a moving scene in which a man is facing a buffalo are reinforcing the mysterious aspect of this deep part of the cave.

The next days after the discovery, several close friends are let into the secret: some of them on Saturday the 14th and about ten on Sunday the 15th. It is tough to hold one’s tongue. On Monday the 16th, most of the teenagers from Montignac or refugees are invited to visit the cave. Under the pressure of such a crowd, it was decided to warn a trustworthy person. By mutual agreement, Jacques had to inform Léon Laval, the former school teacher and renowned as a fine connoisseur of ancient things.

On Tuesday the 17th, the mission is accomplished. Unbelieving, Laval questioned Jacques intensely:

• “How are these drawings? What do they represent?”
• “These are not stones that look like animals? Or scribbles of lamp black?” He knew his former students could bluster so he asked for Georges Estréguil, who was a good drawer, to be sent to the cave to sketch it.

In the morning of Tuesday the 18th, Georges Estréguil handed his drawings to Léon Laval and his reaction was almost instantaneous.

• “Alright, I’ll go up to see this afternoon. Tell Marsal and Ravidat to come to pick me up.”

On the afternoon, the entire group attended the arrival of Léon Laval! At the sight of the hole, Laval hesitated again as he feared a prank. Witness of the scene, the old grandmother Baudry of the neighboring farm is annoyed by the tergiversations of the former teacher:

• “Tell me, Mister Laval, if you don’t want to go down then let me pass by!” In front of the old lady’s bravery, Laval, barely reassured, engaged himself feverishly on the rock slide. And after a demanding descent, facing the adorn wall, first speechless, he spontaneously says:
• “Oh… Shit!”

If for the old lady this sight is spectacular and unexpected, for Laval who is an experienced archaeologist, it is a revelation, an unhoped miracle.

Everything went fast after that. The next day, Thursday the 19th, by a turn of events that only luck has the key, Maurice Thaon, a student of the prehistorian Henri Breuil, was visiting his brother, a soldier stationed in Montignac. He heard about the discovery, went to the cave, drew some sketches and took his bike to show them to Breuil who, another unexpected coincidence is staying in Brive!

On Saturday the 21th of September, the one nicknamed the Pope of the Prehistory authenticates the cave and entrusts the explorers to guard it. The boys had already made a permanent tent camp and stay on the hill. In the procession of the many visitors, there are also journalists. The news of the discovery goes round the world in spite of the troubled time.

Listen to the Inventors

[Georges Agniel recounts how they contacted Laval (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/lalerte-a-laval?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

[Laval’s visit (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/premiere-visite?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

[Newspaper article from Paris Soir, September 1940 (read in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/article-sur-la-decouverte-en-1940?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

At the beginning of this crucial week that had seen the intervention of Laval and the arrival of Breuil, Simon left hurriedly for Paris. Start of October, it is Georges’ turn to join his parents in Nogent-sur-Marne for going back to school. Jacques and Marcel do not leave the hill anymore, determined to accomplish the mission they had been entrust with: protect the cave from all degradation.

Mid-October, the abbot Breuil is back to start the study of the cave. On the 17th, he honoured with a visit the Count and Countess de la Rochefoucauld, owners of the estate of Lascaux and therefore of the cave. In a first time, the boys had believed they were partly beneficiary of their discovery, they now understand that it is not the case. When he is not showing the cave to other prehistorians, Breuil starts the list of the engravings of the “Cabinet des Félins” with the help of Jacques and Marcel. Besides the scientific works, he supervises the first developments of the entrance and often talk with Léon Laval, his faithful representative. The small narrow passage of the discovery had been changed into a wide trench that let appear the porch of the cave.

Breuil left Montignac in mid-December after a public conference that got a full house. At the beginning of winter 40-41, the surrounding areas of the cave had been modified but the entrance is still open. Jacques and Marcel, being permanent guards, had organised themselves. After the accidental fire of their tent, they built a hut covered with foliage and equipped with a wood-burner stove. In this way, they will spend all winter at the bedside of their treasure, waiting for a wooden building with a door to be achieved in spring.

Mission accomplished, they can go back to the village.

[Listen to the abbot Dubreuil’s opinion on the cave of Lascaux (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/la-grotte-de-lascaux-par-breuil?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

[Visit the 3D version of the original cave on your phone.] (https://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/fr/visiter-grotte-lascaux)

End of September 1940, a few days after the discovery, Simon is the first to leave Montignac. The return of his family to Paris is dictated by an imperative, to circumvent the Vichy’s decree that forbid the return of Jews in an occupied zone.

At the very beginning of October 1940, it is Georges’ turn to leave to join his parents in Nogent-Sur-Marne for the start of the school year.

In 1942, Simon’s father was deported to Auschwitz in September. His mother was arrested shortly after. Grabbed in October, he will found her in the Drancy internment camp. The moment is tragic. Because he did not had 16 years old yet, Simon is liberated but his mother is transferred to Auschwitz. He will never see his parents again. That same year, Marcel was required to work for the “Chantiers de Jeunesse” in the Pyrénées. This exile won’t last long, he came back in December to avoid another enrolment and hid in the caves around Montignac.

In 1943, Marcel is wanted as he escaped from his convening to the STO (Compulsory Work Service). He joined the Resistance with the Francs Tireurs Partisans in the group “Jacquou le Croquant”. He was nicknamed “Jim”, a code name borrowed to the hero of Treasure Island. In March, Jacques is arrested by the Germans and imprisoned with the workers of his factory in the town hall. He is interrogated to know where Marcel is. Then, he is required to open the cave to the soldiers searching for a weapons storage. Finally embarked in a truck by the Vichy police, he is transferred in a labour camp in Austria by the German authorities. Simon is hiding at best from day to day.

In 1944, with his group of the Maquis, Marcel enlists into the 126 Infantry Regiment of Brive to continue the battle in the Vosges and in Germany.

In 1945, in liberated Paris, Simon is thus out of Nazis’ claws. From Yugoslavia, where he had been transferred to a labour camp, Jacques is freed by the followers of the Marshal Tito. He celebrated his twentieth birthday on the road that separated him from the harbour of Trieste : 400km on foot before boarding to Marseille. In November, Marcel was demobilized and immediately returned to his native Périgord.

War had been there. Separated by the sequence of tragic events but finally safe, the four inventors of Lascaux will only reunite together many years later.

[Watch the movie “La nuit des temps », 10 minutes (in French)]. (https://dai.ly/xedbn)

[Simon recounts his arrest (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/drancy?in=randonnees-dordogne/sets/le-chemin-de-la-decouverte-de)

The discovery of the cave of Lascaux transformed the life of another character: Léon Laval, often designated as the former teacher. Actually, in 1940, he is not a school teacher anymore but he dedicates his time to cultural life and archaeology. If he was the first to reveal the inestimable value of the discovery, he also quickly became Breuil’s privileged spokesperson and the wise adviser of the boys who protected the cave. After that, he became the correspondent of the art unit so the official director of the cave of Lascaux. There, he ensures the reception of prehistorians and has a control over visits. He embodies the respected authority that allowed the cave to go through the troubled period of the war.

He was approached in September 1942 for the shooting of “La nuit des temps” the first movie filmed in Lascaux and which recounts the discovery in a fanciful way. A nod from the fate that forces a smile: Jacques Marsal discovered this movie in a theatre in Vienna when he was kept in Austria for the Compulsory Work Service. Imagine the scene: the inventor of Lascaux climbing on his chair, pointing at the screen and screaming, “Look, it’s me, it’s my discovery!” under the incredulous looks of the audience.

But let’s go back to Léon Laval. Once peace returned, he continued his mission passionately with more and more visitors, prehistorians, journalists or celebrities to welcome. But he felt painfully the works of development that brutalized the entrance and the ground of the cave.

Harsh reality, after being the awaited revealer, its inspired protector and then its engaged curator, here he is, bluntly deprived of his function the day before the opening to the public.

He was without contest the man who look after Lascaux and the one who probably saved it from many irreparable damage. His action is inestimable.

On the 26th of September 1948, even though the cave is open to visit since the 13th of July, it is the official opening ceremony in the presence of the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts from the Périgord Yvon Delbos. Directly from the Bulls’ Room, the radio reporter Michel Droit is interviewing Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal and Léon Laval.

We hear with pleasure the guided voices of Marcel and Jacques. One can guess how the questions of the journalist Michel Droit delivered an embellished version of the true circumstances of the discovery, a leap that combines the episodes of the 8 and 12 of September. This version will often be told to the visitors of the cave and will achieved posterity. The legend is sometimes more tenacious than reality.

Under the control of its owner the Count de la Rochefoucauld, Lascaux enters into a new era, the one of touristic exploitation and with it, came the first concerns about its preservation. But this is another story to tell.

[Extract from the radio programme of 1948 live from the bulls’ room (in French)]. (https://soundcloud.com/randonnees-dordogne/recit-de-la-decouverte-durant-linauguration)

[Watch the television report on the closing of the cave in 1963 (in French)]. (https://m.ina.fr/video/RBF01006200/fermeture-de-la-grotte-de-lascaux-video.html)

In November 1986, the authorization was acquired to reunite the four inventors in front of the entrance of the cave, at the exact same place where the hole of the discovery was situated. For their complete reunion, 46 years after their extravagant adventure, it is the least one can do.

The idea germinated three years before, during summer 1983 in the enthusiasm of the opening of Lascaux 2. At this time, Jacques Marsal was still the guardian in chief of the cave but Marcel Ravidat had not put a feet back on the hill since this sad month of April 1963. Whistleblower of the proliferation of the “green sickness” on the walls, he was convinced that if he had been listened to earlier, the permanent closure could have been avoided. He had also lost his job by the way, but Marcel did not take it personally, he was not like that. That same summer, it was Georges Agniel who came to Lascaux 2 at the head of a delegation from Nogent to appreciate the replica of Lascaux. Then, it was Simon Coencas’ turn to go down the capital a few months after. Contact was reestablished with each of them, they only needed to be reunited on the same day at the same place.

On Thursday the 11th of November 1986, everything is in place. The moment of the reunion is moving and time seems suspended. Because there were too much romanticized, distorted or altered versions, Simon, Jacques, Georges and Marcel are pleased to recount every detail of their adventure. The facts are finally told from the inside, with four voices, in intimacy. The conjunction of memories is precious to enlighten and enrich every stage of their adventure. These are first-hand information.

With their endorsement, I am now the heir of a memory to preserve and perpetuate. A heavy responsibility but a thrilling task with the insurance to benefit from the four most reliable sources that ever existed.

This is thus how “Le secret des bois de Lascaux” emerged, an account at the closest of what the four boys who had been the actors had lived.

Probably the most beautiful adventure of the Prehistory!