To be a guide at the Visitor's House consists of offering visitors a guided journey
in the discovery of Vézelay site and mainly of its abbey church. This is to invite to a
global approach to the place: architecture, symbols, construction methods, historical context ...
The revelation of the meaning of this architecture by the sensory experience is a priority; contemplate
and understanding are constantly combined in the course of discovery.
The guide is a smuggler from one shore to the other, from a world in front of you to the one you carry within yourself.
It does not seek to convince: it invites wonder and understanding of the intentions and laws of construction that underpin architecture.
By making the stones speak, he transmits living things and not only objective information or
scholarly content reserved for initiates. With this in mind, he proposes to enter into a knowledge
in the first sense of the verb to know, “to be born with”.
He is a member of a team of guides who support and advise him. Team spirit and
trust are the ingredients of the co-responsibility to which he is invited.
Specificity of the training
1 -Immersion in the site
Listening to the place, its contemplation as much as its study are the keys to learning.
“Meeting architecture as you meet someone…” means having a conversation with the site, questioning it and wondering, welcoming it in all its components. It also means having recourse to source texts which, in the monastic context of Vézelay, are primarily biblical texts and their commentaries.
It is about entering into the thought of a culture with its values, signs and symbols.
2 - Learning from an experienced guide
In a short time, lead an audience that we do not know towards the discovery or rediscovery of
site assumes a quality of presence and speech.
In this regard, oral expression workshops will provide the means to experience peaceful speech.
based on breathing and carried by a diction that makes it audible to all audiences.
The visit is based on a scenario whose key words and stages have been written and validated by
years of experience. Thus the guide in training does not have to invent or improvise everything, but he is invited to
follow a framework that will comfort him in his interventions.
3 - Solidarity with the team of the Visitor's House
The common concern for the good reception of visitors, team meetings, shared meals, good
House outfit are essential everyday items. They arouse solidarity
comparable to that of a creative team. No competition between guides, no ownership
neither of his visits. The guide being alone in his visits, he will need all the more face to face
to take stock and get feedback.
4 - Adaptability
The diversity of visitors' ages, their cultural, religious or philosophical origins,
contingencies of the organization, last minute reservations require flexibility and relaxation
to assume these delicate moments without tension; a capacity for adaptation which is strengthened with the
time and experience.