Chateau Museum
The Chateau Comtal was built during the medieval period but its foundations date back to Roman times and it was strengthened by Louis XIV’s military engineer the great Vauban. Napoleon III was imprisoned here in 1840 and after WWI the body of the British Unknown Soldier lay here in state on the way to be buried in Westminster Abbey. It is now home to a museum displaying many artefacts that include an Egyptian art collection. It’s a little dated but good for a rainy day visit and there are some fascinating exhibitions.
Nausicaa
Nausicaa, the National Sea centre of France is listed by UNESCO as a “Center of Excellence”. It opened a brand new state of the art extension in spring 2018 which has made it one of the largest aquariums in the world, certainly the biggest in Europe – and it is spectacular.
Giant tanks fill the new space and we mean giant. The “Big Tank” holds 10,000m³ of water – that’s enough water to fill four Olympic swimming pools. It is an awesome sight. You can walk right up to it and come face to face with shark, manta rays and shoals of fish. Or you can sit and watch, mesmerised, from benches in front of the tank, it’s strangely relaxing and hypnotic.
There are almost 60,000 creatures, 1,600 species, living in the huge underwater world of Nausicaa, as well as a few above water too including penguins. The oldest resident is a sand tiger shark and the biggest resident is the wonderfully intelligent sea lion Speedy. It takes 7km of piping to move all the water round, a massive 17,000 m³ in total.
You’ll often spot divers in the tanks cleaning the copious amount of glass with sharks, sea lions and fish of all sorts swishing close by. You get a real feel for what life is like under the ocean.