THE POLYTECHNIC MUSEUM & THE SYNCHROTRON SUN
SINCE 1794
Stock up of discoveries
We organize your transport by coach, train or plane
69€ / person
Indicated prices are with tax included.
Prices are all inclusive for little and big groups.
No stone will be left unturned, every detail will be completely explained, they know their subject like the back of their hand.
French
Our guides perfectly speak the languages indicated
Highlights
- The collections of the Polytechnic Museum created since 1794
- Discover one of the schools that has been been emblematic for the science field for over 200 years
- Understanding waves and electromagnetic force in everyday life
- How does your cell phone or microwave work?
The secret garden of the Île-de-France, Essonne (91) is full of remarkable sites: magnificent landscapes, natural parks, emblematic gardens, castles… Apart from a rich historical heritage, this region hides a surprising industrial and economic know-how .
In Palaiseau, you will discover, through a guided tour, an extraordinary museum: the Mus’X, a polytechnic school with more than 226 years of history. This exceptional place is divided into two areas, a space for permanent exhibitions and another dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
The museum space, open to all, exhibits the remarkable collection of historical and artistic instruments acquired over the centuries. Its mission is to safeguard, pass on to future generations this extraordinary heritage and promote it to visitors.
The Revolution of 1793 seriously disrupted schools and students gradually deserted education. In 1794, Gaspard Monge, Jacques-Élie Lamblardie, and Lazare Carnot, scientists, created the central school of public works to compensate for the lack of engineers and senior executives.
It became École Polytechnique in 1795. In 1804, Napoleon I felt that this institution lacked discipline and gave it military status. Located on the Sainte-Geneviève mountain in Paris, the school moved to the Palaiseau campus in 1976.
Initially reserved for men, the academy will open to women. Catherine Monge, wife of the founder, animated a salon (salon of lights) where the spouses Bonaparte, Berthollet and Carnot liked to meet.
The school will see illustrious figures such as Henri Becquerel, Nobel Prize winner in physics, Pierre and Marie Curie, Joseph Joffre, Étienne Buffet, Valéry Giscard d´Estaing, former President of the Republic and many more.
In the course of your route, several themes will be addressed: mathematics, electricity, chemistry, science … Your guide will tell you the history of this prestigious school and you will be able to admire in the library many scientific instruments, archives, old books, iconography, uniforms of yesteryear …
You will have the pleasure of seeing up close exceptional pieces that date back to the establishment of the establishment, and many other incredible objects such as an 18th century microscope made for King Louis XV, by Magny, optician.
This visit promises you a real immersion in the daily life of students, teachers and researchers from various eras.
You will go, in the company of your guide, to the SOLEIL Synchrotron Research Center (LURE Optimised Intermediate Energy Light Source) located in the heart of the Saclay plateau in Saint Aubin.
The center, inaugurated by Jacques Chirac in 2006, houses many laboratories and various facilities: the synchrotron building with a high-performance X-ray source, the control room and an experimental hall.
This spaceship-like infrastructure houses one of 4 particle accelerators (electrons) producing light 10,000 times brighter than the sunlight provided by a storage ring over 300 meters.
Thanks to this light, scientists can study living things (cells, bacteria, viruses, etc.) or inert matter (batteries, packaging, pollutants, etc.). Many researchers who are not part of the Center come every year to carry out experiments!
During your tour, you will discover this surprising cutting-edge technology which has allowed considerable advances in various fields such as pharmacy, medicine, chemistry, nuclear power, nanotechnologies, micromechanics, microelectronics …
This unique guided tour takes you into the mysterious world of research and the infinitely small matters! (Due to the presence of magnets, the site remains prohibited for children under 12 and people equipped with pacemakers, insulin pumps, etc.).
Roadmap
Departure by coach to the polytechnic school museum located in Palaiseau called Le MUS’X.
In 1794, at the end of the revolution and in a context of crisis and skill needs, the school was created on the initiative of a few scholars. Since 2018, the new museum has opened its doors to better welcome you and better present this heritage of more than 200 years.
This renowned school has welcomed scientists and talents, such as Henri Becquerel Nobel Prize in Physics, Raymond Poincaré former President of the Republic, nowadays, Elisabeth Borne Minister of Transport, Anne Marie Lagrange, Astrophysicist and member of the Académie des science.
(Around) lunch at the restaurant
You will take the direction of Saint Aubin located a few kilometers from Palaiseau to go to the scientific and technological center of PARIS-SACLAY where the Synchrotron Soleil research center is located.
Synchrotron Sun is a 16 hectare site, or about 2 football stadiums, with an electricity consumption of 6 MW, or the equivalent of a city of 8,000 inhabitants.
In total, since the creation of the Sun site in 2008, 25,000 users from 1,800 laboratories have collaborated, not counting visitors interested in science.
But for what purpose? That of exploring matter. But why explore matter?
To design materials with storage capacity using less surface area, determine the 3D structure of pathogenic molecules to manufacture new vaccines and drugs, understand the formation of magmas, imagine living tissues previously invisible on radiography, locate cells more efficiently tumors, protect medieval stained-glass windows from browning or decipher the morphology of fossils. The list is of course not exhaustive.
(Around) End of our programme and departure to your home.