On the borders of the Gard and Ardèche departments, the cave of Barjac is a unique natural monument in France. To protect its exceptional beauty, this site, discovered in 2012, will remain closed to the public. However, its inventors want to share its splendours with the general public in a different way: through images.

Nine years after the discovery of the Barjac cave, the memories of Nicolas Richardeau are still prevalent. "We're pinching ourselves, it's hard to believe".murmurs the caver."I will never go to the Moon or the ISS like Thomas Pesquet, but I had the pleasure of being the first to set foot in a wonderful world that has existed for 8 million years".added his colleague Guido Goossens.

It all began in 2012. Bernard Magosa fellow caver, discovered several promising caves in the communal woods of Barjac, a small village of 1,600 inhabitants to the north-east of Alès.

A fragile site, protected from tourism. It is precisely the extreme fragility and purity of this site that prevents it from becoming a tourist attraction. Simply walking on the ground damages the concretions. "Even with all the protection imaginable, visits from the general public would destroy the work that nature has done over millions of years".says Guido Goossens.