Venue and Itinerary
A reinvented visitor journey, from discoveries of masterpieces to immersion in the sea and its challenges.
The Museum visitor journey is organised thematically, making its way through several galleries presenting over 1,000 items, all restored thanks to major work carried out during the seven years that the Paris site was closed.
History, fine arts, science and technology and folk tradition… The Museum covers numerous fields thanks to its collection’s typological diversity: scientific and technical, military, and archaeological and ethnographic objects, along with models, photographs, sculptures, paintings, graphic arts, decorative arts and fabrics.
The visit begins with a stylised life-sized ship's prow, which visitors enter. They are immediately plunged into an immersive marine environment, by means of a film projected onto a large hemispherical screen overlooking them, which depicts the sea from multiple viewpoints: underwater, on the surface, and from the air.
The visitor journey is designed to resemble a sea voyage, taking in four "Stopovers" and three "Crossings".
The visitor journey
The Stopovers
Construction and Instruction: ship models
Museum must-sees, these scale models of ships bear witness to a variety of uses, including instruction of future naval officers and marine engineers. A comprehensive panorama is on display, from toy boats to imposing models almost 5 metres long!
Finding One’s Way on the Sea: the arts of navigation
How did sailors get their bearings at sea before modern technologies? By means of charts, compasses and lighthouse lenses, etc., this area focuses on the evolution of navigation instruments, from the first ocean charts to the Galileo satellite.
Representing Power: Maritime Carving
With an extraordinarily varied repertoire to choose from, ship decoration had aesthetic, technical and political uses alike. Surrounded by impressive figureheads, visitors are led to acquaint themselves with an outstanding example of sculpted decoration floating above a radiant oculus. The Réale, an ambassador galley for the Sun King’s aspirations, is one of the Museum’s masterpieces.
Painting for the King: Vernet's Views of France’s Ports
This series of fifteen large-format paintings, thirteen of which are exhibited at the Museum, depicts France’s ports in the second half of the 18th century and constitutes an outstanding piece of heritage. A political tool at the service of royal power, these paintings/panoramas are remarkable artworks in which everyday scenes of maritime and port life highlight the thriving activity that French ports enjoyed at the time.
The Crossings
Le Havre: a Gateway to Consumption
Many of our everyday products get to us by sea. Here, starting in Le Havre and surrounded by containers, visitors acquaint themselves with the countless port activities and their actors, consumption shipping routes and offshore energies, along with leisure activities and watersports. The Crossing also sheds light on passenger transport.
Shipwrecks and Storms
Set in the heart and upstream and downstream of a huge wave that visitors are invited to enter, this area provides visitors with a sensory experience of some of the sea’s more fearsome aspects. It addresses such questions as solidarity in the face of its dangers, through testimonies, monumental works and objects recovered from famous shipwrecks by means of underwater archaeological techniques and operations.
France as a naval power: history and innovations
Through stories of ships and sailors, the diversity of their professional skills and knowhow, this gallery helps visitors understand the National Navy’s role and missions, and the development of France’s war fleet from the 17th century to the present day. There is a special focus on tactical and technological innovations and inventions.