Jérôme Gibert, guide

Jérome Gibert © Musée de la Mine du Cap Garonne

Port-Cros National Park

"It's not my job, it's my lifestyle!"

At 43 years old, Jérôme Gibert has already spent half his life in the mine of Cap Garonne! Originally from Digne, he arrived in 1993 in La Garde where his mother's family lives, passed his Baccalaureate S and enrolled in a DESS (post-graduate diploma) in "Sciences and Life of the Earth"..

Biology, petrochemistry, the mining world, metals... all this interested me, perhaps because I come from a northern family... but I hadn't planned anything!

During his undergraduate studies, he registered at the student center and learned that the Mine du Cap Garonne was looking for someone.

They told me you had the chops, you should go... But I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea of being locked up. What changed the game is that this real mine is made of big "rooms" of 3 meters high and 6 wide.. You don't have the feeling of being locked up at all

Jérôme worked for a season as a guide, finished his DESS..."I had my first son, and I was offered a work contract. I never left. One might think "easy"... he speaks of the obvious:

I feel like a fish in water. I live in the little house next door, my second child was born here... This is my home! It's not my job, it's my way of life. I don't feel like I'm going to work, I don't do tours, I share my knowledge of the place. And, at some point, I realized that I was made for this!

In fact, with his stature, his cheekiness and his voice, Jérôme is the character of the mine... but above all there is his passion, almost palpable, which the visitor feels from the very first moment.

And contrary to what one might think, he adds, it's very progressive!

His specialty?

It's the history of the mine, geology, how metals are formed, the composition and price of ores... I'm always up to date, it enriches the visits, the discourse is not fixed!

Neither is the site, which took advantage of the 16 months of closure imposed by the health crisis "to review the entire course, give a more modern vision, create new spaces for temporary exhibitions, workshops ... " It has completely changed the approach," confirms Jérôme, who, with his new president, Christian Garnier, even plans to organize cultural events..

He is also very happy with the partnership that Garnier has entered into with theNational Park Spirit brand.

Because it corresponds to our vision of slow tourism: taking the time to welcome people, and it is not because we are in a mine that we do not have an ecological conscience!