Jules Verne: A Curious Spirit

Get a taste of Jules Verne's inquisitive spirit and dive into the original notes that triggered his adventures, both real and fantastic. This welcome room invites you to walk in the author's shoes and share his fascination with geography, travel and the technical discoveries of his time, which allowed him to foresee many advances that came decades after his novels were published. Alongside the exhibition panels, an interactive table immerses you in the life and work of an unforgettable author.

Pages Biographiques

Embark on an eight-minute 360° VR voyage into the life of Jules Verne, beginning at his iconic tomb in La Madeleine Cemetery, Amiens, before sweeping across the places that sparked his boundless imagination. Stand on the banks of the Loire, beside his beloved boat, the Saint-Michel, and feel the pull of the sea that stirred his boyhood hunger for adventure. In Paris, walk the streets where he forged his career, watched his stories come alive on stage and set sail into the world of literature. The journey closes in Amiens, the quiet, contemplative city of his maturity, still alive with the pulse of his fantastical worlds.

The Vernian Work

Discover the legendary partnership between Jules Verne and his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who guided his scientific research and published most of his works over 40 years, in serialised instalments that made the Voyages Extraordinaires a kind of 19th-century Netflix. Explore first editions and books in many languages — Verne is the most translated author in the world after Agatha Christie — alongside globes, diving suits and antique maritime instruments that capture the adventurous spirit of the 19th century, while vintage posters line the walls.

Le Grand Planisphère Numérique

A 28-minute large-scale immersive movie takes you from the depths of the Earth to the Moon, and from the Poles to the heart of Africa, through the magnificent places Jules Verne made famous in his novels — remote landscapes and cultures that most 19th-century readers could barely imagine. Scene after scene, you are surrounded by them, discovering curiosities about the novels in which they appear, alongside engravings by Édouard Riou, Jules Férat and Léon Benett, vintage posters and early cinema.

• The Adventures of Captain Hatteras
• Journey to the Center of the Earth
• Michel Strogoff
• The Steam House
• Five Weeks in a Balloon
• Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
• From the Earth to the Moon
• Seas and Oceans

Les Machines Verniennes

Jules Verne imagined and described his machines just as he wrote his novels: with precise data, soul and style. Born between the state-of-the-art engineering of his time and his fertile imagination, Les Machines Verniennes are much more than means of transport: they carry his characters to unexplored lands. In this Sketch & Post interactive installation you discover some of these machines, colour them in and scan them, then watch your creations come to life, animated in a breathtaking panorama of Verne's native Nantes.

Voyages Extraordinaires: Snapshots

An artistic installation by Joan Fontcuberta and Franc Aleu in which algorithmically generated photographs reimagine the worlds of Jules Verne. Like impossible photojournalism, these striking, never-before-seen images bring his novels to life and offer a fresh, visionary perspective on his timeless adventures.

Meta Verne

A ten-minute metaverse voyage into Jules Verne's universe. Explore the planet as if it were a living character — from the hidden depths underground to the vastness of space — and step into the real and fantastical worlds of his most popular novels, where knowledge and imagination ignite.

• Underworld — Journey to the Center of the Earth
• Seas & Oceans — Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
• Earth — The Mysterious Island · Around the World in Eighty Days
• Troposphere — Robur the Conqueror
• Space — From the Earth to the Moon

20,000 Leagues of Inspiration

Walk down a long corridor recreating a street of Verne's time and discover unknown and curious facts about how he inspired future authors, scientists and explorers — from Jacques Cousteau, who called Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea his "bible on board", to Igor Sikorsky, Yuri Gagarin and the Apollo astronauts. At the end of the voyage, a steampunk frame offers the perfect photo opportunity after a memorable exhibition.