There’s no confusing Ludovic Slimak for just another hotel guest. It’s a sweltering Sunday afternoon in late August and we’ve arranged to meet in the car park of a guesthouse on the outskirts of Montélimar, southeastern France. The lawn sprinklers are in full swing; a couple of kids play in the fenced-off poolside area. Hiding from the heat in my rental car, I’d been concerned we’d struggle to find each other: Slimak’s email and WhatsApp communication until now have been at best irregular; the phone signal is patchy in this rural French corner. As soon as he pulls up in a dust-covered Volkswagen minivan, however, I realise there’d been no need to worry. Amid the trickle of blissed-out holidaymakers, Slimak seriously sticks out: he has wild, long hair and an overgrown, grey-flecked beard; there’s dirt deep beneath his fingernails. It’s 43C, according to the screen on my dashboard. In shorts and a T-shirt, I’m sweating. Meanwhile, the man now waving in my direction is dressed in a herringbone waistcoat, stained linen trousers, denim shirt and Indiana Jones panama hat. There’s no need for introductions to confirm he’s the man I’m here to visit. Ludovic Slimak looks a picture-perfect archeological adventurer; a self-described Neanderthal hunter.
He suggests we drive in convoy to our final destination, the Grotte Mandrin, a hillside cave hidden deep in Rhône Valley woodland. “It’s almost impossible to find the place unless you’ve been there many times,” Slimak explains in fluent English with a French accent. “And it’s better that way: we don’t want any random people to – accidentally or otherwise – come across all the treasures we’re finding.” One of the world’s leading experts on Neanderthals, Slimak has spent decades travelling across continents in search of insights into this mysterious, extinct prehistoric species. Just a short drive away, he assures me, is one the most significant archaeological sites he’s ever spent time working at. “I started digging there 33 years ago,” he says, “and for the past 20 years I’ve spent a lot of time in this cave, trying to understand Neanderthals better. It’s here we’re making discoveries that are radically reshaping our understanding of the history of both Neanderthals and humans, too.” His book, The Naked Neanderthal, is the result of this research. In 2022, it was published in France to great acclaim. Now, it’s been translated into English. That’s why I’m here.
