Some 26km up the Vézère valley, MONTIGNAC is the main base for visiting the Lascaux caves. It’s a more attractive place than Les Eyzies, with several wooden-balconied houses leaning appealingly over the river, and a lively annual arts festival in mid-July, featuring international folk groups. On place Bertran-de-Born in the old hospital, the Musée Eugène-Le-Roy (July to mid-Sept daily 9am-6.15pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 9-11.15am & 2-5.15pm; 10F/1.52) displays local crafts and trades, and it includes a reconstruction of the household of Jacquou le Croquant, the peasant protagonist of the novel of the same name by Eugène le Roy, the Dordogne’s native novelist, who lived and died here in Montignac. The novel describes the harshness of peasant life in the early nineteenth century and the depredations of the local squirearchy in spite of the reforms of the Revolution.