Musée de la Marine

The Musée de la Marine traces its origins back to seventeen forty-eight, when the naval engineer and naturalist Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau presented a collection of meticulously crafted ship models to King Louis XV. He intended these pieces to serve as functional training tools for students at the naval engineers' school, rather than mere decorative items. The models were originally arranged on tables painted blue to mimic the sea, creating a miniature maritime environment that felt like a living port for those who studied them.