The stay

This trip, taking place in the great outdoors, will link field work, lab work, and games to create a real vacation. The curious will be satisfied, the shy ones will find friends that share their passion, and the specialists will put their knowledge to use to resolve real scientific puzzles. This trip will make the participants eyes gleam with wonder.

Science Science La science est désormais l’affaire de tous. Découvrez la science d’une manière ludique et active. Nous vous proposons d’en découvrir plus sur nos expéditions à la voile, découverte du plancton. instructors specializing in the field will plan the indoor lab activities and the outdoor excursions to fossil sites and dinosaur paths, which will give youths a chance to find themselves in the skin of palaeontologists.

The research project

Studying the largest species extinction will help us understand how fragile biodiversity can be. This camp will teach us to calculate the age of your favourite dinosaurs and which time period they belonged. We might learn that your favourite dinosaurs might have never crossed paths. Using current methods to study dinosaurs and having access to models for understanding their life will take us far in our passion for dinosaurs.

The location

Un des panoramas que nous offre la région. Ici à 3h de marche du centre.

The region offers us panoramic views and is only a three hour walk from the Center. The Musiflore vacation center is in the Drôme countryside, between the small city of Dieulefit and the village of Bourdeaux. This part of Drôme is famous for being a part of the biovalley community whose goal is to sustainably develop and manage a European rural land (http://www.biovallee.fr). This place is dynamic and preserved where the risks of pesticide contamination are lower and where running water is possibly cleaner. With regard to running water, the Drôme is known for its tempestuous, but festive hot springs! Near our center, we have access to a beautiful spot where it is possible to bathe in one of the most affluent places in the Drôme: the Roubion.

This part of France is important due to its agriculture, culture, and artistry. In fact, we can walk to visit farms and agricultural companies, particularly manufacturers of goat-related products, like the Picodon, a famous cheese, in a family atmosphere. Just 20 minutes from the center of Musiflore in the tiny city of Dieulefit with his historic downtown, every week there is a huge market where artists and artisans mix with local producers. On the other side, Bourdeaux is a town with an old castle in ruins and a medieval downtown that runs a huge festival in the summer ending with fireworks. There is also the Chapel of St. Jean de Crupies, a remarkable archaeological site designated as a historic monument that holds many secrets. All these activities take place during the summer period and add to the participants’ joy, while bringing more cultural aspects to our scientific activities and gives us a more integrated approach to the land.

Vue aérienne de la forêt de Saou, et de cette formation géologique particulière : le synclinal perché.

This region is filled with fauna and flora and a number of orchid species. Vultures and wildcats pass under the center. It is not rare to cross a goat or find protected insects.

_Just behind the center, the hiking trails are over 500m in altitude and offers superb scenery. It will be about a three -hour hike, if we take our time, but the view is just breath taking!
_Just behind the small village of Saou and accessible by biking, there is a forest with the same name, niched into a particular geological formation, called an inverted syncline.
_To put it simply, the forest is quite pleasant. Our ecological learning process in the Drôme integrates scientific and hands-on activities. Culture and nature intertwine into daily life from which our team and participants will grow from the experience.

Day to day proceedings

On this trip, you will be able to:
 Discover techniques related to palaeontology and search with all your heart for dinosaur bones, flora and fauna of the era!
 Take 3D photos of imprints and make casts to take home.
 Organize your discoveries and design your favourite dinosaurs.
 Meet animals in the wild and get to know the Dinosaurs!
 Explore the world of fossils and the time of the dinosaurs.

A 3-day expedition in camping is planned for Digne to discover natural parks and geological sites.

Come meet the fossils of famous marine reptiles, the Ichtyosaure, whose body is part dolphin and shark, but it is not one of their ancestor. The Ichtyosaure illustrates how these species adapt to life and change in form over the course of evolution.

The Dalle à Ammonites (“slab of ammonites” in French) in Dignes-les-Bains contains hundreds of ammonites and even fossils dating from the Jurassic era. Studying this site will help us understand how fossils and geological layers form and they will teach us what living conditions were like millions of years ago.

Like a real palaeontologist, learn to take photos of archaeological sites without damaging them. You will learn to pilot a drone and use different models to take the best photos of fossils and fossil traces of dinosaurs.

We will be camp in the evenings and we will let you teach you how to make a fire with flint and steel. We will even sleep in the trees, suspended between the branches.

The team

The team is composed of many people. The team at OSI specializes in palaeontology and/or geology and they will explain to you and guide you during the project. They will also assure a smooth running of the expedition due to their pedagogical competence and responsible attitude.

Accomodation

De verts et vastes espaces pour de folles activités.

There will be vast, green spaces for fun activities. The Musiflore vacation center is located in the middle of nature, with about 48 hectares of forest and prairie lands. The property owners in the area will welcome us, on the condition that we respect their work (such as not going into the fields just before harvesting, for example) and to let them know in advance. We will find ourselves in an immense land of discovery and adventure, where only the length of our steps is the limit.

The Center was recently renovated and has rooms with good lighting and comfortable beds for 3 to 6 people, as well as numerous activity rooms of varying sizes. We will often eat outside, during the pleasant evenings. The Center has a well-equipped auditorium. Farther out, there are buildings with a renovated old farm a traditional pizza oven. We will make pizza and bread often!

Après avoir confectionné nos pizzas, on les enfourne dans le four à bois!

After having made our pizza, we will bake them in the stone oven! Food is one of the mediums we will use to achieve our goal of promoting ecological living in the Center. The Center is the ideal place to learn ecological living because the local produce is important, and many farmers respect the environment (the Center is located in a community, called biovalley, designated as a eco-friendly farming area). The participants will prepare their own bread two or three days a week, and they will make them according to their tastes. The menus reflect a healthy diet and all this is only made possible by the team at the Musiflore Center.

The Musiflore Center is also designed to be as ecologically-friendly as possible (such as having hot water cauldrons, low energy consumption, providing healthy foods). We also try to reduce our carbon footprint, paper use, and to use recycled material. In and around the Center, we have everything that we will need for our activities: open land for games and flying drones, large expanse of forests to explore and study, prairies with orchids, and are impressive rivers to study and to bathe in.

The Musiflore Center is perfect for having a good time! The Center will give us plenty of opportunity to immerse ourselves in nature, and its numerous rooms will be perfect for our activities. A specially designated room will be used to organize gatherings and end-of-camp parties for the children on Saturday afternoons. And everything will take place under the sun.

At the heart of the land is 49 hectares of preserved prairies and forests: youths will be able to stay in rooms well equipped for two to six people in the Musiflore Center, which is located in Crupies, in central French Prealps since 1966.
Completely renovated, this building is well adapted for musical activities, artistic expressions, natural discoveries, and scientific and cultural activities of this NGO.

Parents can decide to tour the city the day before the camp starts and stay in the hotel in the region, or even come to the party taking place on the last day of camp (a Saturday afternoon) a day before departure. Parents can also explore the region for the duration of the camp. In addition to the numerous hotels and hostels available in the area, the Musiflore Centre is where all the camps are located, and is easily accessible and available for Saturday and Sunday nights.

We organize all accompanied transfers from Lyon and Valence between all major cities.
If you are coming by your own means and bringing your children from another departure point, different routes of access will be offered to you depending on your point of departure and your final destination.