- The coronavirus epidemic has delayed the opening to the public of the Padirac abyss in the Lot. It will take place on Sunday, three months just after the date originally scheduled.
- CEO of the site, Laëtitia de Ménibus-Gravier takes stock of the situation of this gem of underground France, which came out of a record year before the crisis.
June 28 instead of March 28. Three months behind schedule, due to Covid-19, the Padirac chasm in the Lot opens on Sunday. Apparently, the fact of not being able to sink to 103 m deep, before getting into a boat to go admire the hall of the Grand Dome, weighed on the nerves of some.
"People do not always understand such a gap between deconfinement and reopening," regrets Laëtitia de Ménibus-Gravier, CEO of the site. On the way there, I was even insulted. Fortunately, there are also lots of nice people. You have to understand that we have managed all the difficulties related to supplies. And we are not the only company ordering masks and gel. "
The chasm of #Padirac is a natural cavity 35m in diameter, sheltering at 100m deep a river and many underground galleries. Fred and a part of the team went there recently in anticipation of a future file ... Soon on https://t.co/JvZNMR8fPr! pic.twitter.com/EMfOnEsyRW
- The Wizarding Spirit (at home) (@EspritSorcier) October 11, 2017The owner of the place also regrets a "somewhat confused deconfinement" and public authorities not always as reactive as she would have liked. But now everything is ready in one of the most famous tourist sites in Occitania, where you descend either by elevator or by a staircase of 207 steps.
Mask mandatory for children over 11
The mask will be compulsory for children over 11 years old in order to have the right to infiltrate the geological wonder discovered by Edouard-Alfred Martel in 1889, and exploited since 1898 by the same family, including Laëtitia de Ménibus-Gravier, in position for fifteen years, embodies the fifth generation.
“There will be 16 hydroalcoholic gel pedal dispensers, ultrasound cabinets where the audio guides will be disinfected between each visitor, electronic taps in the toilets. The boatmen will systematically disinfect the boats, which can accommodate 10 people at a time, as usual. And in the waiting areas, there will be a marking on the ground, in groups of 10. "
Reservations, with a reduced hourly amplitude compared to normal, are made only on the Internet: around 2,000 people are expected this Sunday, in a site that can accommodate up to 8,000 visitors on busy days, during the first fortnight August. If the health regulations remain the same as today, these very high season figures will have to be halved. Suffice to say that the attendance record of 2019 (503,000 visitors) will still wait to be beaten.
"We don't set a figure for 2020," says Laëtitia de Ménibus-Gravier. If we don't lose money, it will be great, but I doubt it. We will surely lose several million euros. I especially hope that people will be respectful of the site and the employees [about 140] whom we are trying to protect as well as possible. "
Innovations despite everything
To chase away the disaster and forget about the events initially planned that the coronavirus sent to the bottom of Lake Rain, the chasm wanted to innovate. One year after the Doisneau exhibition, there will still be a question of photos with 20 photos to present the places inaccessible to onlookers, who cover a little more than 2 km for 1 hour 30 minutes while the total length of the galleries is 42 km.
#GouffredePadirac |
The exploration of the huge #Padirac site has been going on for generations 😌! A visitor sent us this magnificent montage of the visit of his grandparents in 1929, his parents in 1969 and his in 2008! A story that fits into an image 😍 pic.twitter.com/9Q0LEKPXrC
Speaking of photos, that of the visitors immortalized on their boat, unchanging for decades, almost disappeared for the season. "Who's going to buy it when the people on it are masked?" Asked the CEO, before getting around the problem.
“The groups will take the photo under a tent installed in our park, without a mask since they will be with the family. Then they will choose the decoration that will be added behind: either the orifice, or the boat, or the galleries. It will be collector. A way of remembering in a few years how 2020 was an extraordinary year, in the literal sense of the term.
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- Covid 19
- Deconfinement
- Coronavirus
- Tourism
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- Society