During the last 9 and 10 November, the 5th edition of the « Rencontres Montagnes & Sciences » event took place at the Palais des Sports in Grenoble. This annual event, which attracts hundreds of visitors each year, provides an opportunity to discover how and why mountains are studied by scientists.
About ten films were screened during the two days and each of them dealt with a different subject ; astronomy, volcanoes or melting ice for example, each of them being linked to mountains and the usefulness they bring to scientists for their research. In addition to the screening of documentaries, some experiments were carried out on stage. Mathieu Barthelemy, a researcher at the Institut de planétologie et d’astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), thus created an aurora borealis in front of the amazed spectators while explaining how he managed to do it and more generally how the northern lights were formed.
This event was part of another one – « Rencontres Ciné Montagnes » – which took place from November 6 to 10 during which visitors had the opportunity to discover a wide variety of areas related to the mountain. The whole event gathered nearly 20,000 people and different fields such as music, art and science were promoted through movies. As it was the 20th anniversary of the event, exclusive workshops were held this year. For instance, it was possible to suggest a script idea to directors Christophe Raylat and Pierre Petit in order to obtain recommendations from them. In addition, a paid workshop was set up for the first time to learn more about photography and cinematography techniques.
In short, this event allows people to discover the mountain and everything it is linked with for a very low price. And if you missed it, don’t make the same mistake next year!