The stay

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Introduction

Like the 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. explorers from the Amazon, but in Drôme instead, you will be hooked to a rope, which will allow you to climb through the trees with astonishing ease.
But to do what exactly? It is by participating in the research program Research Program Collaborate with scientific organizations. Actively take part in participative science research programs. All this is possible with our plankton discovery sailing expedition. and by mastering the different climbing techniques that you will familiarize yourself with the observation techniques of flora and fauna and you will get to participate in the development of true scientific protocols.
You will be able to compare different areas of study and propose sustainable solutions for actions to be implemented in order to preserve the biodiversity of all sites studied.
This year we will realize our new study subject: the impact of climate change on the study of processional caterpillars and their predators!
But that is not all! The treetops will not only be an area used to study 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. but, during the stay, it will also become our dining area and our bedroom…

France report 2 :

Holidays 2015 :

Concepts learned during your stay

Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Recognize the trees, study their development, discover galls and lichens, study the state of health of a forest, classify and identify insects, observe birds, contribution to the development of the fauna and flora inventory. Study the impacts by tracking natural spaces and look for hints regarding the quality of ecosystems. Observe plant cells, take part in splitting the tissue (leaf, stem…) and analyze biodiversity.

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Equipment Used

Harness, microscope, magnifying binoculars, laboratory glassware, Petri dishes, binoculars, fauna and flora identification keys, dendrometer made with the help of a 3D printer, entomologist equipment (sweep nets, Japanese umbrellas, insect vacuum cleaner), topographic map, GPS, vivarium, camera traps, decametre, temperature sensor, anemometer, hammocks.

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The Holiday

Your stay will take place in a canopy. How long will you be able to stay in the air without putting a single foot on the floor? It will be up to you to tell us!
Your project will allow you to spend most of your time in the trees, which will then allow you to distinguish and differentiate them, but also to study their state of health and their evolution. What types of trees live in what areas, at which altitudes and why? Show me a tree and I will tell you which subsoil they are protecting and why they are there!
Trees, are above all, a rich and complex ecosystem which you will get to understand, day after day, ascent after ascent. Since they were seaweed until the conquest of sunlight…the trees became a true air cleaning factory, and also a blessing for all species, including ours!
But a forest is also a place of life where many species are hiding, eating and flourishing. Therefore, we will search for them in order to observe them. But how?
Maybe by building lookouts, wooden cabins, or even platforms in the trees…. although have you ever climbed trees? Is climbing trees a familiar feeling to you? This works out then, as this stay will lead to an activity framed around tree climbing.
You will learn how to mold footprints that were left by the wild animals, and how to use binoculars and camera traps to obtain visual observations.
Our studies will allow us to travel from the big to microscopic, deer to mushrooms, lichens to xylophagous insects (wood eaters), treetops to roots (or the reverse!) and we will get to discover, with a magnifying glass in hand, the symbiosis of certain mushrooms.
The field, which is rich in sampling and observations, will allow us to take part in laboratory sessions to try some experiments with plants (photosynthesis, the greenhouse effect) and take our time identifying and learning to use the tools of identification.

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The Research

The “Up Amongst the Trees” holiday is component of the PERCEPTION Research Program Research Program Collaborate with scientific organizations. Actively take part in participative science research programs. All this is possible with our plankton discovery sailing expedition. , which seeks to better understand the relationships between all living things in an ecosystem, in order to propose innovative and ecological solutions for agricultural production and the management of forests.
As a matter of fact, the forest is also a resource for mankind. If it is well managed, it provides us with the materials required for construction and energy… however, can it also feed and heal us?
In many countries, the trees compete with farmland and sometimes they barely survive deforestation…therefore, can we grow a forest? Why are we seeing farmers planting trees in their fields to increase the quantity of their crop? Can rich ecosystems and food resources cohabit?
This is what the project wishes to highlight by making us actors to our own answers… experiment to understand, explore to know…

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The Location

The Musiflore holiday center is located in the Provence of Drôme, between the small town of Dieulefit and the village of Bordeaux. This part of Drôme is renowned for being part of the municipalities of the valley, whose aim is to develop and arrange a European rural territory for a sustainable development (http://www.biovallee.fr). Also, it is a dynamic and preserved area, where the risk of contamination by pesticides are low and the rivers are more likely to be healthy. Speaking of rivers, Drôme is also known for unintentional, but also festive, swimming. Near the center, we will have access to a beautiful place where it’s possible to go swimming in one of the tributary streams of Drôme: Roubion.

The agricultural, cultural, and artistic context of this part of France makes it a privileged location. As a matter of fact, we are able to go by foot and visit agricultural farms, particularly the goat farms who produce the famous Picodon, a renowned cheese, in a family-friendly environment. Twenty minutes from Musiflore’s center, there is a small town of Dieulefit, which is made up of an old city center, offering us, on a weekly basis, a large market where artists and craftsmen are alongside local producers. On the other side, Bourdeaux is a small town which possesses ruins of an old castle and a medieval center that hosts once a summer, a great medieval festival that ends with a magnificent display of fireworks. All these activities, which are done in accordance to the summer schedule and the desires of participants, brings about more culture to our scientific activities and allows us to have a more integrated approach to the territory.

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

In regards to fauna and flora, this region has not been left behind. Griffon vultures pass over the center. We can also find many species of orchids and it is also not uncommon to cross a deer or protected insects.
_The hiking trails in this region offer beautiful landscapes, for instance, just behind the center about 500 m above sea level (approximately 3-hour walk at a leisurely pace), the views are striking!
A little further away, just a few miles by bike behind the small village of Saou, is a forest of the same name, nestled in an inverted syncline (a geological formation that is very unique). In short, the landscape is more than pleasant.
Our activities in Drôme are integrated into an ecological approach, which means it is where science and manual activities, culture and nature, are associated with the daily life and allow the participants to grow… and our team!

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Notre spot de baignade, le Picodon est l’occasion de visiter des fermes productrices de ce fromage local à succès, la faune et la flore sont très riches, ici une orchidée (Ophrys insectifera).

The daily life on site

During your stay, your role will be to carry out the studies regarding impacts, to monitor natural spaces and look for clues on the quality of ecosystems. You will also contribute to the analysis of biodiversity and to the characterization in associating habitats through the study of physics and physicochemical on the scale of surveys to that of the landscape.

You will also have the opportunity to encounter the local actors involved in biodiversity. From community leaders or by passing the guards of the NOF or forest landowners, these sessions promise to be rich in information.
The goal will be to unlock the secrets of the forest. To discover the fauna and flora found in the forest and to understand the interest; to understand the biodiversity as well as ecosystems services.
Secondly, you will be led to proposed sustainable solutions in terms of actions to be implemented in order to preserve the biodiversity of each site studied.

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The team

After completing a Master’s degree in Biology of Organisms and Populations from the University of Burgundy in 2011, she joined the NGO Objective Sciences International NGO in June 2012, and became a scientific Educator at the Biotech Connection camp.
In 2013, she accepted a position as Manager of the PERCEPTION research program.
Since then, she has coordinated various camps, such as “Up Amongst the Trees”, “Along the River”, and even “The Soil and its Secrets”.
Solène also coordinates the PERCEPTION programs’ expedition in the Amazon. (discover it on this website) : Please note that spaces are limited!

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Accommodation

De verts et vastes espaces pour de folles activités.

The Musiflore holiday center is surrounded by nature, with approximately 48 ha of land, shared with forests and prairies. The local landowners welcome us, provided that we respect their work (ex. do not go in the fields prior to mowing) and inform them. We will find ourselves in an immense field of discoveries and adventures, where the size of our strides is our only limit.

The center, which has recently been renovated, has many rooms for activities, small or large.

On this stay, it is in the hanging tree tents that you will sleep, and all this will be done with the greatest measurements of SAFETY!

The meals will sometimes be eaten at the Centre, located in the immediate vicinity, and sometimes in the campgrounds of the Tree Climbers! Often outside and always in the shade due to hot weather, which is always pleasant.

Showers are taken at the Holiday Centre on a daily basis.

The Holiday Centre also possesses an auditorium equipped with all the required material to produce shows of all types. Other buildings, a little bit further, consisting of an old farm, which has also been recently renovated, has a bread oven that is still in operation. Therefore, we will often make bread, or maybe even …. some pizza!

This fits into our goals that are linked to our impact on ecology. In this center, we have focused our approach on nourishment. This location is ideal due to local production being important and a number of farmers being respectful towards the environment (the center is located in a community called a valley, which is committed to an environmentally friendly agriculture). Also, participants consume the bread that they produce (two to three days per week, for the time being) and they also make their own snacks. The menus are lighter in terms of meat products and are well thought out in order to provide all the nutrients required in terms of energy, which will be found in fresh produce. This is possible due to the close collaboration with the whole Musiflore Centre’s team.

As a matter of fact, the Musiflore center is also integrated into an ecological approach (wood boiler, numerous awareness signs, concerns about the energy balance, healthy nourishment, etc…).
We also try to reduce the number of movements, our consumption of printing, purchasing of recyclable products in terms of food, etc…
In and around the center, we have everything that we will need for our activities: open fields for great games and for the take-off of drones, extensive forests to explore and study, prairie fringed orchids, large and impressive trees, rivers to study or to swim in…
The Musiflore center is therefore perfect in order to have fun inside or outside!

During this vacation, you will live in the heart of your research project. As a matter of fact, this stay will be 100% nature! It is in the middle of the trees that you will have the chance to wake up every morning. Afterwards, you will put in place various protocols in the forest and you will familiarize yourself with the different techniques of climbing trees.
But don’t worry, sanitation (toilets and showers), hot water, and hot meals will be guaranteed!
On the occasion of evenings consisting of campfires, you will learn how to master a fire (efficiency and heat) and to manage it in complete safety. However, a grilled marshmallows contest is not excluded!

Log Book

http://www.prog-perception.com/Au-f...

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Access and Discoveries

Provence, Lavender, and Oak Forests:

Click on this link if you would like to preview all the stays that are provided by the Scientific Stay Centre OSI Provence.

Location of the Holiday Centre

At the heart of a preserved area, 49 hectares of prairies and forests:
The youth will be accommodated in nicely equipped rooms with 2 to 6 spots, in the Musiflore center located in Crupies, the heart of Provence’s Prealps since 1966.
Entirely renovated, this building is used for activities like music, artistic expression, and the discovery of nature, and is also well suited for science and culture activities of the NGO.

It is via Lyon and Valence that we will organize the accompanied transfers from all cities. If you come by your own means, there are different access points offered depending on your point of origin or your final destination, in the case of bringing your children for a larger trip.
Paris - Crupies is done in 3 hours and a half, from door-to-door, by the Mediterranean LGV.

Access to the Musiflore Center:

When arriving from Lyon or Grenoble from Highway A7: exit 15 Valence South. Take the D111 in the direction of Die/Gap. Bypass Crest and go towards Nyons / Bourdeaux (D538) all the way to Bourdeaux. Continue on the D70 towards Nyons all the way to Crupies. Pass Crupies and go towards Vesc / Nyons. The Musiflore Centre is 2 km from Crupies, on the left.

When arriving from Avignon - Marseille on highway A7: take exit 18 Montélimar south. Follow D540 towards Dieulefit. At Dieulefit, take Nyons and La Paillette. Continue towards Vesc and Crupies. The Musiflore Centre is 3 km from Vesc on the right, just before the Crupies village.

To arrive on site, you may:

• Arrive on site by your own means (you will receive the time of the appointment by email)
• Organize a departure from all cities of the world: [Contact-us for more information—>art18]
  • Or come by train or minibus from your city
  • Or come by plane : [Contact-us for more information—>art18]

The Centers’ address:
Musiflore Center
Combe de Garaux
26460 Crupies
Tel. at the local rate from France: 09 72 21 57 59
Tel. at the normal rate from Canada and the U.S.A.: 011 33 9 72 21 57 59
Tel. at the normal rate from other countries: 00 33 9 72 21 57 59

This Centre allows us to experience the stays immersed in nature, and we will benefit from many activity rooms based on the infrastructure of the property. A large room will allow the organization of big bangs and the retransmissions of your children, where Saturday afternoons will also be used.

We must warn you that the region is filled with all kinds of activities, streams to discover, prairies to explore, forests to walk through…

And all of this in the sun!

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

The country of BOURDEAUX is the Saoû forest, which is the most exceptional natural site of the department! However, it is also a land filled with light contrasts, thirsty stones, marls, wood undergrowth and scrubland with thyme and lavender. A little piece of paradise in Drômes Prealps between Vercors and Provence.

The village of Crupies is a small town characterized by its absence of a village center, but whose fame is assured by Musiflore and by the St Jean Chapel (XIth Century). From the top of the hill, it dominates and monitors the Roubion river, which shines in the sun.

Crupies is a village where life is good. It perpetuates a good tradition of conviviality.

Parents may also decide to take advantage of a hotel in the region, whether it is the day prior to their arrival or to attend the Retransmission of their children on the Saturday afternoon (eve of the departure on Sunday). The parents can also profit from the region during the whole length of the stay.

In addition to the many hotels and inns available in the area, the Musiflore Vacation Center, where the stay will take place, is also at your disposal for the Saturday and Sunday night.