A Day in Solutré - I

The next two posts will be large - lots of words and pictures!  It was such a great experience, we wanted to get it all down.

David, as a geologist has long wanted to visit the famous Roche de Solutré.  This is a renowned and long-studied prehistoric hunting site that is also extremely scenic.  There are many artifacts and the bones of the prehistoric horses that were hunted in huge quantities.  As with many of our day-trips in France, we experienced so much more than what we had thought.

Anna & Vineyards Below the Famous Roche de Solutré

View From The Right Side of the Previous Picture

The site contains a recently refurbished and reopened underground museum relating events at the site to man’s development during the Stone Age.  Evidence of man’s activities at the site is pretty much continuous for the past 57,000 years.  The museum proved informative and well-done, with audio guides in English that provided detailed explanations for the exhibits.  Additionally, the primary excavated areas have been replanted with native plants designed to show how a site’s plant ecology develops over time to a stable condition involving the dominance of some species to the exclusion of others due to such things as the effects of shading by trees on the survival of many types of annual plant life.  The balance of plants in different areas is maintained in a state of arrested development so one can see the various stages of evolution from grassland to wooded area.  Depressions in the topography can still be seen where some of the early excavations took place about 130 years ago.

View From The Outside Part of the Museum Across The Saône River Valley To The Alps & Mont Blanc

Same Spot Towards Town of Solutré-Pouilly Below with Vineyards

To The Right of Town Showing Vineyards [Chardonnay]

Above The Sign are Depressions Left From 19th Century Excavations

  After our tour of the inside and outside museum areas, we pondered going to the top of the rock, a bit over a kilometer up a steep trail.  In the museum we learned to our surprise that there had once been a fortified castle atop Solutré, and extensive burials from about 1000 years ago.  Since it was after 1PM, we decided to forgo the climb in favor of a bit of lunch in the nearby village of Solutré-Pouilly.  And, are we ever glad we did!  [Did we mention the spectacular weather – 75 degrees, no clouds, and that Solutré is located in the vineyards of Poully, as in Pouilly-Fuissé, Pouilly-Mâcon, and Solutré-Pouilly?] 

More to come!