has an impressive view of the room. Candle room Along the left-hand branch the candle room - named after its beautiful stalagmites (candles) - also contains dots and traits but mainly features with some very nice art work like a 40 centimetre bison, the head of a horse and a bovine. The room ends in a very narrow passageway that was later enlarged to facilitate the entry to the painting room, which meant that some very beautiful concretionary deposits had to be sacrificed. Painting room The painting room exhibits most of the art work. It is most famous for the fresque de chevaux (horse fresco), the petit cheval bleu (little blue horse) and the l'homme et le bison (man and bison). Yet it also contains exuberant and partially intergrown calcitic deposits. Findings Altogether 30 paintings have been discovered, their size not exceeding 50 centimetres. The paintings were drawn in black manganese oxide bound by animal grease. Later on the paintings were naturally covered by a thin, milky calcite coating which renders the traits in blue (like the famous little blue horse of Villars). Yet at the same time the coating has protected the art work from external influences and the Villars Cave does not seem to have the problems that affected Lascaux. Besides the paintings some engravings are also present, as well as abstract female silhouettes, red dots painted with ochre and some very abstract geometrical signs like staffs, crosses and hooked symbols. The geometrical signs are very difficult to interpret. Besides horses, bovines, bisons, capricorns and a deer head, a human figure attacked by a bison is depicted. The latter resembles a similar scene found in the well of Lascaux (scene du puits). Cro-Magnon man's presence has left a few traces like knocked over calcite concretions and broken stalagmites. Some lost or discarded utensils have also been found – to name silex flakes, bone fragments (mainly from reindeer), a reindeer antler and ochre and manganese oxide fragments for painting together with cup-shaped calcite deposits used as receptacles. Age According to Leroi-Gourhan the art work can be attributed stylistically to the second period of his style III which correlates with the Older Magdalenian. This represents in absolute terms roughly 17,000 years BP. Absolute age dating with the radiocarbon method was done by Michel Genty on a burnt tooth found in a fireplace below the man and bison. He found a