Splish-Splash: Aquarium de Nancy

This morning I had some time before classes and decided to explore the patrimoine de la ville (patrimony/cultural heritage of the city) a bit instead of sleeping in. My first visit to the Aquarium de Nancy was on a rainy Saturday afternoon in November. It was a free admission day and the place was packed with kids running around and their desperate parents frantically trying to keep up with them. This time, I was presque (almost) the only visitor at 10 am and I got the reduced student price of €1.50. I quietly strolled amongst the exhibits and took pictures with my new camera (thanks Mom and Dad!). I love watching fish glide through the water and studying how they compete for territory in an enclosed space. As part of the aquarium’s collaboration with Université Nancy Henri Poincaré, one of the exhibits is equipped with sensory devices to measure the electrical output generated by certain species of fish. A monitor at the reception desk shows the time interval between spikes in voltage. While the Aquarium won’t win international recognition any time soon, it serves an important educational function in the community through its detailed exhibits and accessible prices. As I mentioned in my blog posts about Marseille, I think that municipal aquaria and museums are often underfunded and overlooked resources. Perhaps I’ll mosey on down to my own local history museum back in America.