This article comes from the journal Science et Avenir-La Recherche n° 893/894 dated July-August 2021.
nature
Bramabia. the abyss
Guard. The Cevens Valley has been explored for almost a century. Carved into limestone by the Bonheur River, it consists of an underground network, with various impacts extending over 10 km. Visitors explore different stages, one accompanied by a guide. Departure takes place underground.
Notice: 04.67.82.60.78
wolves of gevaudan
Lozere. It is in the vicinity of this animal park that the legend of the Beast of Gewodon took shape after attacks that claimed a hundred victims between 1764 and 1767. Two and a half hundred years later, the mystery over them remains. Because of this black range, but about ten kilometers from Marvejol, this 20-hectare park in the center of Lozre has made Gévoudan a privileged place for humans and wolves to reconcile. In total, 136 wolves of five different subspecies are kept semi-freely in large enclosures. But on natural paths, everything is done so that travel, free or guided, allows observation of different packs to several equipped stations. It takes about three hours to walk around it.
It’s also an opportunity for a nice walk on the area’s steep paths – walking is strongly recommended. For the more curious, a 12-hectare scientific observation park is also accessible, populated by twenty Mongolian wolves, descendants of individuals rescued from poachers in the 1990s. While the feral wolves return to French territory, tour the park and its educational workshops on ways to rehabilitate the animals and address the questions that this return to the ecosystem creates. For history buffs, a section of the park museum is devoted to hunting Gevaudan’s beast, even though it has never been proven to be a wolf.
Notice: 04.66.32.09.22 or sciav.fr/893Loup. Feather
customized workspace Allows you to observe the park’s 136 wolves of 5 different subspecies. Credits: S. gautier / sagaphoto
avene armando
Lozere. We descend through the funicular 75 meters underground into this spacious and unique room. There, in a section where a cathedral would stand, limestone deposits stand in tight rows.
Notice: 04.66.45.61.31
cochlear cave
Guard. The site is a series of rooms on a one kilometer corridor. It is characterized by its circular joints, its fistulas or translucent draperies, and a series of water basins (gorges) in the rock.
Notice: 04.66.24.34.74
Story
Georges-Labbit Museum
Haute-Garonne. This luxurious Moorish villa was built in the late 19th century by Toulouse collector Georges Lebit, a great traveler from North Africa to Scandinavia and of course Asia, to whom, along with Egypt, this small museum is dedicated. Among its wonders, a mummy, the star of the place, or this Egyptian statue of a moving couple where the wife holds a lotus flower, the husband a “knot of life” and their younger daughter her dove. A Khmer Buddha sits on the nearby Musilinda Naga, with objects and prints from the Tibetan collection (a double thunderbolt, singing bowls) and Japan. Don’t miss out on this bucu (theater mask), in front of which it’s hard not to see the late Jacques Chirac!
Information: 05.31.22.99.80 or sciav.fr/893Labit . Feather
Statue of Amun brought back from Egypt by Georges Lebit. Credit: Town Hall of Toulouse, Georges-Labit Museum
Heritage
witness mine
Guard. It is again possible to take the route of the “Black Gulls” Sevenoles to discover the 700-metre galleries. In the background, a retrospective overview of mining history awaits the visitor.
Notice: 05.53.06.45.45
Dinosaur Museum
Oud. Titanosaurs, giant birds, ankylosaurs and large theropods have been found in the largest French deposit at Bellevue, 3 km from Esperaza.
Information: 04.68.74.26.88 or sciav.fr/893Esperza . Feather
Dinosaur Park Museum
Harault. In Maze, the largest museum dedicated to dinosaurs in Europe is housed in an extraordinary paleontological site, which has produced numerous nests of dinosaur eggs since 1996.
Notice: 04.67.43.02.80 or sciav.fr/893Dinos. Feather
three fingerprints
Lozere. The Castellas site is a marvel with three-fingerprints of tiny theropods sculpted in thin layers of dolomite.
Info: sciav.fr/893Treves
research space
Mont Aigoul Observatory
Guard. At the top of the highest point of the department, is the last mountain meteorological observatory in operation in France. Built like a fortress in the late 19th century, a “meteorite” provides 700 meters of space2 Scientific phenomena in contact with meteorologists.
Notice: 04.67.42.59.83
AD, HJ, DJL and RM . By