Photo : Aquarium La Rochelle / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Aquarium de la Rochelle
The La Rochelle aquarium stands near the Old Port, in the town centre. It opened in 1988 and belongs to the Coutant group, founded by René Coutant, who had created the first aquariums in the 1950s. The current building, designed by the architect Éric Cordier, covers 8,445 m².
Here you can see more than 12,000 marine animals, belonging to more than 600 species, spread over 82 tanks. The whole represents about 3 million litres of sea water, half of it for the shark tank. It is one of the largest private aquariums in Europe.
The establishment welcomes about 800,000 visitors a year, which makes it the leading tourist site in Charente-Maritime and the second in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It also houses the Centre for the study and care of sea turtles, which takes in and treats turtles stranded on the Atlantic coast. Located a stone's throw from the harbour towers, it combines easily with a walk through the town.
