Maison du Patrimoine et de la Mesure

Description

The House of Heritage and Measures. Just what you need to help you answer the famous question, "which is heaviest a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?". And if the person you're asking doesn't get it, you can measure his stupidity. You should find everything you need here.

In the "House of .." family, I'll ask for the House of Heritage and Measures. Bingo! I've drawn the lucky card: a wooded park in La Talaudière. And I've found some really weird and wonderful gadgets there - 6,000 weird and wonderful gadgets - that have been used to measure and weigh things for more than 2 centuries. From Roman scales to Roberval balances, from the altimeter to the telemeter, not forgetting the hypsometer. Equipped with your surveyor's compass (an ancestor of that app you have on your mobile/satnav/bread oven), you can walk the alleyways to find all these devices invented by Man to understand and control his environment. By the end, the notion of size and weight will no longer hold any secrets for you. And you can breathe a sigh of relief, no-one had the bright idea of getting you to weigh yourself. In any case, there's no time left. And time is a notion that weighs on us but that we don't really measure (if you have any hints, we're takers). And as a little bonus, the Maison has put together a small collection devoted to the La Talaudière miners. An exhibition to enjoy like a good old film, with an entirely Talau cast.