The Natural History Museum, near our hotels, has just opened their big spring exhibition about some of the most hostile environments on earth: deserts, from the Sahara to the polar expanses, where life adapts to conditions that are almost beyond imagination…

When you imagine a desert, you might first think of the Sahara, perhaps the Gobi desert… just sand as far as the eye can see, and temperatures so hot that nothing can survive.

And yet, surprisingly, deserts can come in many different forms, and are to be found on every continent in the world – a third of the world’s land masses are actually deserts!

With nearly 200 exhibits, including interactive touchscreens and large-format projections, the Deserts exhibition vous montrera ces milieux fascinants et la vie qu’ils contiennent, comment les humains se sont adaptés pour y vivre, du Mail à la Mongolie.

In addition to personal stories and interactive presentations – both scientific and fun – the exhibition includes modern art from Silvère Jarrosson, ‘radically abstract’ works inspired by the desert and specially created for the exhibition, around three themes: what is the human experience in the desert? How do the landscapes form? and How part does chance and constraints play in this formation?

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There are a lot of differently themed guided visits and workshops organised around the exhibition (in French), as well as:

— conferences,

— a film showing with a concert on 5th April,

— a Q&A session with artist Jean-Paul Krassinsky, talking about his new graphic novel (adapted from a written novel) entitled De pierre et d’os (extract below),

— a show in French From One Desert To Another on 26th & 27th April with oud player Qaïs Saadi, and another on 27th April with Jean-Carl Feldis – Anna Against the Polar Winds – a story told, filmed and streamed live,

— a festive weekend on 26th & 27th April with storytelling, Q&As, creative workshops, guided visits with scientists and artists, surprise shows…

— the showing of a new documentary on national TV channel France 5 on 10th April à 9.05pm – Green Sahara, the Enigma of a Lost Paradise,

— a showing of Volker Schlöndorff’s documentary The Forest Maker on 17th May…

Full details of what’s on can be found on the page for the exhibition here.

A catalogue of the exhibition (166 pages, 19€) is also available here from your local Amazon.

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The Deserts exhibition is at the Natural History Museum (here) until 30th November2025

Open every day except Tuesdays from 10am-6pm. Closed 1st May

Admission: 13€ / 10€

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