Observatoire du Pic du Midi

In 1909 its 50-centimetre refractor, one of the largest in the world, put an end to the myth of the canals on Mars. Threatened with closure in the late 1990s, the observatory now lives on through its 1-metre and 2-metre telescopes, where new cameras are tested, and through the public it welcomes. A team watches researchers work at the mercy of the sky: patience, precision, and decisions taken together when the weather turns.

The cable car climbs from La Mongie in two stages. By day the site hosts seminars for up to 60 people: equipped rooms, lunch, a private programme, a planetarium session. The Night at the Summit takes 27 guests at most, in 12 double and 3 single rooms: sunset, dinner, stargazing from the terraces and in the Charvin dome, then a morning visit to the research domes. Groups book months, sometimes years, ahead; the site closes in May and November.