In Dunkirk, a volunteer guide offers immersive and sensory visits for the blind

In front of the Dunkirk Town Hall Massif (North), the Laurence Claeysen guide is not stingy with details. It describes with precision the neoflamand style building: the alternation of red bricks and white stone intended for the foundations, cornices and window frames, the statues of the great men on the first floor, that of Louis XIV in the center, under a marquise in a semicircle, the honor balcony … “If I understood, the balcony is above the monumental front door? »Interrupts one of his interlocutors, sunglasses on the eyes. “Yes, that’s it. We are going to approach. Can I take your hand? After a few steps, the first guide gently guides the second fingers on the base of the building beads, as well as on the intertwined “D” of the front door.

Visual deficient, Nicolas Williart participated on this sunny Saturday in February in a guided tour of the City of Corsaire Jean Bart. Affected by a pigment retinitis which made him lose his sight gradually, he settled here six months ago. In order to discover the heritage and the history of his new home port with his wife Karine, clairvoyant, and his dog, Saïko, he contacted Laurence Claeysen. For five years, this greet – A volunteer guide who introduces his city on demand – offers a visit suitable for visually impaired.

The program does not really differ from a “classic” visit: town hall, beffrois, Saint-Éloi church, statue of Jean Bart, heritage boats … “I only avoid climbing at the top of the belfry, because the staircase is very narrow and the point of view for an inexculy less interesting. But the fifties spent hours traveling the city again in order to identify the relevant elements to introduce to this new audience. “It is necessary to describe more than to show: the shapes, the colors, the dimensions, even the surroundings … while adapting my point: if the visitor knew Dunkirk as seer, the approach will be different. »»

Request all the senses

The touch is essential. But how do you feel a city with your fingertips? Laurence invites Nicolas to put his hands on the walls, the sculptures of the church facade, the statues up to men … The anfractures of the stone or the width of the joints between two bricks can tell an architecture. In terms of reaching, Laurence takes out a tip from her bag: a miniature reproduction of the belfry. Nicolas’ fingers follow the cenotaph curves, lampshades or other warhead windows over the explanations … “I also use sound,” adds Laurence, launching music from the famous Dunkirk carnival before teasing her visitor with a Boa pen, an essential accessory for local folklore. Touch, hearing, and even smell with the fish market, the greet was perfected over time. Racking to describe a building allows a blind man to apprehend the height via the meters traveled on the ground.

A still rare model

After three hours of discovery, Nicolas seems delighted with the experience. “If we could have that on all our vacation places, it would be wonderful!” What is far from being the case, deplores the one invested in the defense of the rights of the visual deficient. Admittedly, the heritage and cultural places have multiplied the tactile routes with reproductions of works or models in relief. Admittedly, audioguides and audiodescriptions are very widespread, and guides sometimes describe the works to the visually impaired in the middle of large -feded panels, or even in braille … But to walk the streets of cities, suitable guided tours remain rare or addressed to already constituted groups.

Hence the interest of the model of Greeters: The lack of economic interest allows them to give much more time to their exit, for small groups or individual visitors. Community guides have already organized adapted walks in Paris, Le Havre, Bordeaux, Lille … Last year, Laurence initiated colleagues from Roubaix, and Australians from Brisbane also took information. This Saturday in February, Linda Ticket came less far. This Belgian attended the visit in order to reproduce these good practices in Coxide, in the neighboring Flemish region, “where nothing like exists”. His first visitor could well be… Nicolas Williart.