Discover space and time, discover your own space and time: that's the promise of the Time Trail. This urban educational trail embodies the 13.8 billion years that separate us from the origin of the Universe, with the appearance of Homo sapiens only in the last few centimetres.
The Time Trail in Bois de Thouars, Talence, is a 1.38 km walk on a reduced scale, with a billion years passing every hundred metres. Designed as a narrative walk specifically for children and families in French language, it invites visitors to discover the main events in the history of the Universe since its birth. The 21 educational panels that make up the trail include fun features that enhance the mediation with woodland users.
After its inauguration in March 2024, the Time Trail in Talence’s Bois de Thouars will be open to children on school or extra-curricular visits, from cycle 3 upwards. A programme open to the general public will punctuate the year with fun events such as the European Heritage Days and the French Fête de la Science.
This route is a precursor to the larger-scale 13.8 km Chemin du Temps, which will start at the Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis in Gradignan and end at the heart of the university campus in Talence, via Pessac.
Time Trails is a project designed by the University of Bordeaux and its astrophysics laboratory (Laboratoire d'astrophysique de Bordeaux, LAB) as part of the Science with and for Society label and is part of the Impulsion Origins research network project, which has been awarded the label in June 2021 by the University of Bordeaux as part of the PIA/Idex programme.
The University of Bordeaux is one of around twenty French universities to have been awarded the SAPS (Science with and for Society) label by the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It was awarded the label in 2022 on the basis of the SUNSET project, which is based on a strengthened partnership with local players in the fields of research and scientific culture, and covers a number of areas: participatory science and research, initiatives with and for young people and schoolchildren, promotion of heritage and research, democratisation of knowledge and training. The project is strongly committed to opening up to the local area and to a wider public, and to ensuring the sustainability of the initiatives undertaken.
« It is out of conviction that the town of Talence is hosting the "small" Time Trail in the heart of its listed Bois de Thouars, which represents a real opportunity for the town on several counts.
On the one hand, the campus is one of Talence's key assets: it occupies a fifth of the town's land area and the student population represents a quarter of its population. Maintaining close and constructive relations with those involved in higher education and research is a major challenge for the town in terms of territorial cohesion, as well as promoting the unique skills and know-how present within the town itself.
In addition, the presence of the campus, and more specifically the science campus, has gradually led the city to develop a strong cultural policy around scientific culture and mediation over the last ten years.
Finally, setting up the Time Trail in Bois de Thouars is yet another reason to invite the people of Talence and the wider Bordeaux area to discover this unique wooded area within the city's ring road.
With its 60 hectares, 30 of which are wooded, Bois de Thouars is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. A botanical trail offers visitors the chance to discover these environments along a 4km marked route. The wood is now a classified wooded area and a natural zone of national interest. It is part of the Atlantic oak forest of the plains and hills, dominated by pedunculate oak. Several species are rare or protected: the Tauzin Oak, the Bird's Nest Neottie and the Marsh Hottonia for plants and the Fisherman's Sailor, the Pipistrelle and the Plum Pigeon for animals. Bois de Thouars is also a refuge for common wildlife.
Bois de Thouars is a real green lung for the Bordeaux conurbation, a natural area whose flora and fauna must be preserved. »