Eight hundred square meters, nearly two hundred and eighty pieces, and a single season deployed for the first time across all five sites of the National Maritime Museum: starting October 14, the Palais de Chaillot descends beneath the seas.

Twenty percent of underwater topography has been accurately mapped, and only one-thousandth of a percent has been seen by human eyes. All the rest still belongs to the imagination, and that is precisely what the National Maritime Museum has decided to exhibit.

From Commander Cousteau to Marie Tharp, from the Ama divers of Japan to the filmmaker Jean Painlevé, and even Aquaman, the exhibition that the museum is dedicating to the exploration of the seabed is drawing a large crowd. Spanning 800 square meters, nearly 280 pieces recount how humanity has transformed the inaccessible into territory, from ancient diving bells to contemporary autonomous vehicles. Archaeological objects, diving suits, scientific instruments, models, illustrations, photographs, contemporary artworks, and video installations are displayed in abundance.

The descent takes place in a bluish twilight. Antiquity dives in search of pearls and coral, and recounts that Alexander the Great descended in a glass bell. The 19th century laid its telegraph cables and invented the diving suit with a copper helmet. The 20th century brought the abyss into comics and transformed the race for records into a Cold War affair, as strategic as the conquest of the moon. Four themed galleries interrupt the journey like so many breaths: Cosmogony, Octopuses, Sunken Worlds, and Sirens. Upon exiting, the images of Julian Charrière, filmed in total darkness, leave one unsure whether to look at the sea or at oneself.

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On October 14 and 15, two exceptional evening events will open the exhibition, featuring a concert by drummer Anne Paceo, based on her album Atlantis.

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25 A Season Across Five Sites

The Parisian exhibition marks the culmination of a unique thematic season dedicated to the depths of the ocean and presented across the five sites of the Musée de la Marine. Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort, and Toulon each explore a different facet, from underwater mapping to the first submersibles, including the adventure of diving in the Mediterranean and the inventions of Henri Dupuy de Lôme, father of the first French electric-powered submarine in 1888.

Port-Louis — Machines of the Seas: The (Extraordinary) Inventions of Henri Dupuy de Lôme, Port-Louis Citadel, until November 15, 2026.

Brest — The Underworld: The Adventure of Underwater Mapping, Brest Castle, until March 7, 2027.

Rochefort — At the Diving Station! The Adventure of the First Submersibles, Hôtel de Cheusses and Arsenal, until January 2, 2028.
Toulon — Diving(s) into the Unknown: The Underwater Adventure in the Mediterranean, from November 18, 2026 to June 27, 2027.

We were at the Palais de Chaillot for the museum's reopening: Discover our photos.

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