THE PALEOSPACE - MUSEE DE FRANCE, AN ATYPICAL AND PLAYFUL MUSEUM
Ideally located on the marsh, near the beach and the cliffs of the Vaches Noires, the Paleospace of Villers-sur-Mer is an atypical museum which proposes to you to return to the time of the Jurassic, 160 million years ago, when a warm sea covered Normandy. Spectacular, interactive and sensory reconstructions make it a cultural, scientific and fun place!
Open since April 2011, the Paleospace offers a permanent exhibition space of 300 m² focused on the interpretation of three sites located in Villers-sur-Mer: the cliffs Falaises des Vaches Noires, the marsh of Villers-Blonville and the Greenwich meridian.
The museum is organized into several thematic areas:
- The Normandy dinosaurs room, where large carnivores and herbivores are revealed: the Streptospondylus, the Lexovisaurus, the Dubreuillosaurus valesdunensis... These fossil remains, discovered on Norman lands, represent a first in France.
- The Jurassic gallery tells the story of the fossils of the Vaches Noires cliffs and of Normandy during the Jurassic period. Large skeletons and small fossils allow us to understand what the environment was that sheltered these marine living beings and how they came to be with us after 160 million years.
- The Greenwich Meridian room, where we go in search of longitude by following the steps of the great scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries who went beyond the knowledge of their time to find a reliable method of measurement.
- L'alcôve du Marais, to discover the history of the 110-hectare coastal marsh and the flora and fauna that inhabit it. It is the only natural green space on the Côte Fleurie. Yet close to the sea, it is a freshwater marsh.
- The 360° planetarium to discover the cosmos in a commented journey through the milky way, constellations, planets and stars...
Workshops, visits, planetarium sessions, exhibition...
The Paleospace agenda hereA cultural and scientific tool, but also fun
The visitor is guided in his discovery by interactive models (multimedia, games...), a tactile path, the collections of the museum and objects from the collections of the partners of the Paleospace: the National Museum of Natural History, the Paris Observatory and the Museum of Natural History of Le Havre.
At the heart of the museum, a "cliff-wall" crosses the building in all its length. Its aspect evokes the cliffs of the Vaches Noires and the natural materials recall the proximity of the marshes.
The visit also continues outside the museum by exploring the five-hectare park designed as a space for free play. The "treasure hunt" trail allows visitors to discover the marsh, the gabion, the plants and animals living on the site. Children can have fun with educational games: an ammonite-goose game, a hopscotch-scale of geological times or an area dedicated to "prehistoric animals". Adults can relax in front of the gabion pond (deckchairs, meridian chairs and hammocks). The park also allows the reception of groups: picnic area, zones for outdoor workshops...
