May 11, 2010 - Prehistory Museum in Tauteval

Community Highlights Europe May 11, 2010 - Prehistory Museum in Tauteval

Awoke to a perfectly clear sparkling morning, a bit of a surprise after a very thick fog last night. Going through Perpignan we drove along the Têt river and it was very high, over some roads in places. We fought our way through Perpignan commuter traffic to the airport and continued through the countryside beside the river Agly. The entire way we had great views of Mt. Canigou covered in snow. There is a lot of snow in the higher mountains and it’s nearly the middle of May.

Drove through a couple of villages that were having market day . . . very colorful. Our goal du jour was the Centre Européen de Préhistoire (Prehistory Museum in Tauteval). Threading our way past many bicycles on the back roads, we finally arrived in Tauteval and found parking. This turned out to be for an exposition associated with the museum, not the actual museum, but they had posted a map so we drove on to the real museum and parked. You climb a set of marble (or granite) steps up the mountain and I was very glad they were dry because rain would make them a skating rink. [Place de la République, 66720 Tautavel, tel: +33 (0)4 6829-0776, Fax: (0)4 6829-4009, email: [email protected], Click here for the Prehistory Museum web site]

We bought our tickets and picked up our audio guides and set off through prehistory. Tauteval is, of course, famous for Tauteval Man whose skull and some bones were discovered here. There is ongoing excavation and at the site they have set up cameras which can be manipulated at the museum. You can turn the camera and zoom in on something that interests you. Interactive fun . . .

The museum is very well done and it is amazing to realize you are standing where men stood 450,000 years ago. We wandered through, visiting the exhibits, watching videos and a movie until they closed for lunch. It is fascinating.

We left back down the stairs to find lunch. As it turned out Chez Manu was right across the street from the stairway and had a very nice twelve euro menu. It is a modern, mostly glass, octagon building overlooking the entire valley. The menu for the day was a fabulous farmer’s salad with lettuce, tomato, croutons, lardons, duck and a couple other meats in an excellent vinaigrette dressing. It could have been lunch but was followed by poulet Provençal, a tender falling-off-the-bone chicken in a delicious tomato and vegetable sauce . . . and frites that we pretty much ignored in hopes of having room for dessert, a delightful creamy flan with caramel sauce and Chantilly. Great lunch. [Chez Manu, avenue Jean-Badia, facing the Musée à Tautavel. Tel: +33 (0)4 6829-4848, Fax: +33 (0)4 6829-4849] Update: Chez Manu became L'Os à la Bouche and then during COVID went out of business. I'm hoping someone started another restaurant because the location is wonderful.

By the time we finished . . . after being treated to a rousing version of “La Marseillaise” by a French tour group eating here . . . the sun had been replaced by a black cloud. Ed’s cold was worse; the weather was threatening so we decided to skip the “exposition” and drive home before the rain arrived. It worked. We only saw a few drops and even managed to get through Perpignan without getting lost!

This featured blog entry was written by Beausoleil from the blog The Dordogne and Languedoc-Roussillon.
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