Underground Exhibition in the Water...

Grandes Canalettes cave is among the most important tourist attractions of the department. It was awarded ‘Sud de France’ label, and the department’s gold medal for tourism in 2010.

Located close to the fortified city of Villefranche de Conflent, Grandes Canalettes cave comprises Premières Canalettes, Grandes Canalettes and Cova Bastéra. It was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List together with the city. 

In the first chamber of Grandes Canalettes, the audiovisual exhibition “Goutte d’eau” (drop of water) was inaugurated on 23 October 2011. The exhibition allows to get to know the underground hydrosphere in a very simple way.

It was conceived by Professor Henri Salvayre, and implemented by Edmond Delonca, the pioneer and curator of the site.

A hydrosphere describes the combined mass of liquid water found on, under and over the surface of the planet (oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, groundwater, clouds), solid water (polar caps, glaciers, pack ice), and gaseous water (steam). This sphere extends for an altitude of about 8km (the highest peaks of the mountains such as Everest) and a depth of about 11km (oceanic trenches such as Fosse des Mariannes) (Source: Wikipedia).

The exhibition is intended for the general public and school groups, and helps popularize hydrosphere, in particular thanks to the examples of waters of the earth’s surface and underground waters to be found in the department of the Pyrénées-Orientales.

The exhibition retraces the origins of water on the earth, the constitution, the localization, and identification techniques of underground aquifers and their management. The exhibition considers future perspectives within the framework of increasing demands and the maintenance of the continued existence of a resource which is closely dependent on the expected development of climatic factors.

Since they were convinced of the educational interest of this exhibition, Christian Bourquin, the President of the Region, and Hermeline Malherbe, the President of the Regional Council, inaugurated it, and expressed their approval and support for the creation of a DVD which should be distributed to the schools in the department of the Pyrénées-Orientales. Moreover, school groups who will visit the other caves of the region of Languedoc-Roussillon will also be offered the DVD.

This initiative enforces the connection between the new Water Centre of Montpellier and the Water Centre of Perpignan to which both politicians are attached.