Silver Mine Frankish kings — Attraction in Niort

(un peu de français plus bas)

While everything to get to the beginning of the "guided visit" is accessible/understandable to English-speaking folks (see photograph); that ends there!

Films are in 3D, but no earphones with other languages or even/at least subtitles! Can't translate live either during the French guide speaks (as per their request), as voices overlap (was not shouting though...) Do can translate afterwards... but hard to be exhaustive after 5 minutes explanations. More than half our group was non-French-speaking and while the guide's badge shows a nice UK flag, the guide never tried to translate or give at least a concise explanation of what was just said in French...

When confronted, the personnel answered the French-only guided visit is implicit. I let you be the judge of that, by having a look at the surprisingly-detailled English-written communication at the front door of the museum.

Visite guidée en français intéressante (4-5 étoiles) MAIS (d'où les 2*) si vous êtes accompagnés de non francophones, passez votre chemin! Ou préparez-vous à devoir traduire APRÈS les explications de votre guide (parfois particulièrement longues et détaillées, cf les 4-5 étoiles). Ce, malgré les nombreux supports de communication en anglais et drapeaux du R.-U. sur les badges du personnel et guides; laissant implicitement croire à une accessibilité de la visite au public anglophone... Déçu.

La Direction devrait rapidement réfléchir à expliciter que l'accessibilité du musée aux anglophones s'arrête au paiement du billet d'entrée ; réduire la voilure sur la communication en anglais, laissant croire qu'un accueil en anglais est possible/existant ; proposer des supports autres que le fascicule (qui n'est qu'approximativement corrélé aux explications orales et que l'on serait supposé lire dans l'obscurité de la mine ou après la visite ?!?), tels que des audio-guides ; plutôt que d'investir dans des films en 3D qui n'apportent aucun fond au propos, bien qu'ils ont certainement représenté un coût (qu'il aurait peut-être été préférable de flécher vers l'accessibilité à un public...

Very interesting experience. The history of the caves is fascinating and the caves themselves are well illuminated and suggestive . A word of warning: The tour is completely in French so if you are not confident with the language, you might feel a bit lost. There are handouts in English which you can read before the tour begins but you won't be able to read them during the tour due to light conditions. The human guide was animated and full of details not on the handouts. She did an excellent job. I highly recommend a visit for those who...

Very nice tour and good experience. Everything was explained well. There was a few movies too. The mine inside was a bit tight so if you are tall and don’t like small spaces might not be the experience for you. Definitely important to wear good closed toed shoes. Inside is about 13c so good to bring a jacket too. Very nice overall. There was also a nice little...