Through the great diversity of its natural environments, the Greater Besançon area is home to an incredible heritage of flora and fauna. Dry grasslands, meadows, slope forests, wetlands... in order to pay tribute to the natural wealth of our territory, the Conservatoire botanique national de Franche-Comté - Observatoire régional des Invertébrés (CBNFC-ORI) has worked in collaboration with Grand Besançon Métropole and the Musée des Maisons comtoises de Nancray to create an original exhibition and educational materials.

The exhibition will be permanently installed in the open-air park of the Musée des Maisons Comtoises in Nancray. Grand Besançon will also offer a travelling version of the exhibition to all the towns in the metropolitan area, and will make it available to town halls wishing to present the exhibition to their residents.

Set up in the museum's corresponding natural environments, the exhibition uses 6 large panels to present the different natural environments of Greater Besançon, illustrating them with large watercolors by artist Jean Chevallier. Accompanied by a small game booklet, the exhibition encourages visitors to investigate and linger over these large watercolours to find the different species hidden there and learn more about them. Finally, wooden terminals next to each of the panels invite visitors to "handle/touch/observe" to learn an anecdote, a tip for better understanding and recognizing the nature that surrounds us.

New in its form, this exhibition is aimed at all audiences, appealing to the visitor's different senses to offer several angles of discovery and levels of reading.

Its location in the Museum Park gives the installation a high profile with local visitors and tourists alike, and pays tribute to the landscapes and natural diversity of our region. We also hope that the touring version will appeal to the mayors and residents of the many communes of Greater Besançon!