Visits, Guided-Tours, Activities, Exhibitions & Events
Individuals, Families And Groups
The Promenade Museum Team invites you to share a moment of fun and learning, with all your senses awakened to discover the site and its surroundings, the park and the exhibition rooms.
Visit the Butterfly Garden
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all events, activities and tours are cancelled for the summer of 2020.
Immersing yourself in the world of butterflies, two guided-tours (no booking necessary) are offered every day from April 15th to September 15th. The walk through the flowerbeds is animated by the butterflies themselves while presented and explained by the Guides, who are delighted to share their knowledge and anecdotes.
| Included in the Admission Ticket | ||
| Times: | 11am and 2:30pm | |
| Duration: | 1 hour | |
Guided-Tour of the Exhibition Rooms
During the summer months (July and August), Guides will be waiting for you in front of the entrance to the Maison des Remparts (House on the Ramparts) to accompany you on an informative tour of the Exhibition Rooms (no booking necessary). With them you can discuss the geological history of our region, the evolution of the landscapes, the flora and fauna that are now fossilised, in particular the ammonites that are common in the Geopark. They will explain the history of the UNESCO Geopark and introduce you to live dinosaurs!
| Included in the Admission Ticket | ||
| Times: | Tuesdays and Fridays at 10am Thursdays and Fridays at 2pm |
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| Duration : | 1 hour | |
Full Guided-Tour of the Promenade Museum
This guided-tour is offered to groups from April 1st to November 30th.
Accompanied by a Guide, the visit gives access to both the exhibitions of the CAIRN Art Centre and the House on the Ramparts, linked by a stroll through the park full of interesting encounters : a Japanese Garden, works of art, butterflies, up to the magnificent panoramic view over the town of Digne and the surrounding peaks. To the sound of streams and waterfalls, we will explain the mosses and the formation of tuff-rock, we will guide you to understand the part nature plays in the area, as well as the human history of the place. Throughout the visit, our Guides will share anecdotes and scientific information to take you on a gentle journey back in time to the Earth and the oceans that once covered the Geopark territory.
| Advanced Booking necessary | ||
| Price: | €9 per person €180 for a group of less than 20 people |
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| Duration: | 2 hours minimum | |
Complete guided-tour of the Promenade Museum and the Ammonite Fossil Rock-Slab
Complete guided-tour of the Promenade Museum and the Ammonite Fossil Rock-Slab
A visit to the Promenade Museum can be preceded by a visit to the Ammonite Fossil Rock-Slab in the Nature Reserve.
This allows you to observe real-life geological rocks in the wild with more than 1,500 ammonites on the fossilisation site (not extracted from their rocky resting place and displayed in museum showcases). The tour provides key information to understanding the site and regional geological phenomena.
| Advanced Booking necessary | ||
| Price: | €10 per person €200 for a group of less than 20 people |
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| Duration: | 2 hours 30 minutes minimum | |
The Geopark Experience
This formula enables you to experience various sites and elements thus diversifying the activities and the experience. Depending on the group's interests, the day is structured around the links between the geological, natural and cultural heritage in the immediate vicinity of the town of Digne-les-Bains.
1 - a guided-tour of the Promenade Museum with an experienced Guide for a complete visit of the site : a sensory and playful approach but also scientific, naturalistic and cultural. The stroll through the park, its gardens and its exhibition rooms offers many interesting encounters with local biodiversity (butterflies, snakes, vegetation), as well as with contemporary artworks (open-air artworks, CAIRN Gallery) presenting the time-scale of Humans and the time-scale of the Earth, and also presenting the UNESCO Geoparks of the world.
2 - Picnic Lunch
3 - The Promenade Museum Team will listen to your interests and offer you the opportunity to discover the Geopark's rich heritage. You can choose one of the following options:
"Culture" Option
Discover the long history (two thousand years) of the town of Digne les Bains and its surroundings, its emblematic monuments, traditions and local know-how :
Gassendi Museum
Crypt of Notre Dame du Bourg (5th-11th century)
Alexandra David-Néel's House
The Cordeliers Botanical Garden
Lavender Museum
La Javie Eco-Museum (Hertiage & Cultural Museum)
"Nature & Culture" Option
Just outside Digne, the Bès valley is in the heart of the Haute-Provence Geopark. With emblematic sites that illustrate the natural geological landscape aspects of this unique territory that humans have known how to utilise, admire or protect:
- Platrières de Champourcin: former quarry, gypsum kiln (19th century historical monument)
- Ammonite Fossile Rock-Slab (classified as a National Nature Reserve)
- The Landscape of Les Robines, between ammonites and ichthyosaurs
- The Péroué Gorge
- The Barles Gorges
- The Vieil Esclangon: history of the Alps and Refuge d'Art (Art-Refuge and Land-Art Installation)
- The mountain-pass Col du Fanget, the Seyne basin-valley and the glaciers
- etc.
| Advanced booking required, groups of 15 people or more | ||
| Price: | €18 per person | |
| Duration: | 1 full day, from 9am | |
Children
All children are welcome at the Promenade Museum Promenade outside school hours. Parents, can entrust their kids to the Educational Team who will take them on a journey through the Earth's time while playing and learning in an original way!
The Little Diggers' Birthday Party
The Promenade Museum is always ready to welcome a group of friends on a Wednesday to celebrate a birthday in a fun and educational way. We suggest that you alternate between excavation-digs and sweets, fossils and pieces of cake, whatever the weather!
An excellent afternoon for the children, with no worries about space or noise for the parents who just have to bring the food!
| Schedule: | Wednesday afternoons only, from 2pm to 4pm | |
| Prices: | €100 per paleontological excavation activity |
Price Estimates and Reservations: Tel. 04 92 36 70 70
Summer Activities
Every year, in July and August, the Promenade Museum offers fun activities for children aged 7 to 12, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The schedule is updated every year in June.
| Price: | €7 per child | |
| Duration: | 2 hours |
Reservations: Tel. 04 92 36 70 70
Brave & Beautiful Butterflies
In the Butterfly Garden, curious children discover the different stages in the life of a butterfly and the risks it encounters (weather, predators, etc.) through a fun activity based on the model of a classic kids' board-game. They start by making their own marker, (or piece) so that they can line up at the start and begin the game... They can take it home as a souvenir of an exciting game.
Excavation-Digs - to go back in time
If ammonites could talk, they would tell us about ... the sea in Digne! Like real paleontologists, the children carry out paleontological excavation-digs in the Carboniferous equatorial forest or at the bottom of the Jurassic sea, in search of ferns, sea urchins, ichthyosaurs or dinosaurs that tell the great history of the Earth over millions of years.
Local Friendly Snakes!
They are discreet and yet they are frightening... To dispel preconceived ideas, there is nothing better than to understand the way of life of these reptiles through games and animated activities. There is no danger, because it is the image of the snake that we are taming, between snakes and vipers, to discover the 10 species present in our region. From the imagination of each child, a unique snake will be born, which will perhaps stimulate their curiosity of the wild fauna and the natural environment.
Treasure Hunt: In pursuit of Ammonites
Two hours of treasure hunting in the park with a Guide in pursuit of the ammonites of the Promenade Museum and their treasure. A map, a magnifying glass, a compass and you're off to hunt, going from one test to another on a designated path. Fossils, fauna and flora are presented and explained, sometimes observed live; more than knowledge, logic and ingenuity are used to solve riddles and enigmas... until the long awaited arrival! A great afternoon for everyone, as no one returns home empty-handed!
