The French “cave dwellers” show signs of life

They cook, cycle on an exercise bike and play chess, and they can be seen for the first time in the photos. Participants must also complete questionnaires each day and sleep with sensors wired to the devices. It can also be seen how some people have to go down tens of meters with cables and ropes to fetch water by buckets and tons; Something they have to do on a daily basis.

Outside the cave, scientists watch the team. They want to know how people and their bodies react to “hard lockdown”.

Christian Klot explains in his audio message that sometimes it is difficult to work together. There is no sunlight in the cave and there are no bells. Nobody again because of what time it is. “Sometimes I wake up and other people go to sleep. So you can’t make a date with someone and say, ‘We’ll see each other for breakfast.”

Crazy experience

The fifteen cave dwellers are not experienced explorers, but “normal” French. There is a nurse and an unemployed person. They only had a short training before they left the cave.

“It’s actually a crazy experience,” said psychologist Delphine Trapper. “Participants have to take risks. They come to live in austere conditions. It’s extreme for the body and extreme for the mind. But for a good reason, it’s for science.”