Photo album: "The buildings on the base"

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Let us visit the base to see the different kinds of buildings there are. After the first campaign, in 1952, in the wooden buildings of "Base Marret", the site was closed in January 1953. At the beginning of 1956 new metallic buildings, type "Fillod", will be build to accommodate three successive expeditions during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) that covered the 1956-1959 period. After that, Dumont d'Urville base has been occupied permanently. Construction of new buildings began in 1963. Those buildings had been studied for a good thermal insulation, easiness to assemble, minimal maintenance, and maximum duration. They use an external metallic structure, supported by pillars. The roof, the floor and the four walls, attached to the structure without thermal bridges between outside and inside, are made of insulating panels composed of two stratified glass-polyester skins protecting a layer of polyurethane moss. Many sensors are installed in different places of Pétrels island in small shelters.

The building "common life" where are: the kitchen; the restaurant room; the library/sitting room ; the photo lab; the "water room" with showers, toilets, washing and drying machines (this room will no longer be used during the breakdown of the sea water distillation system). This is a building of the new kind.

Pierre Challon, our cook, in front of his kitchen, try to make friends with a few skuas, giving them some raw meat leftovers.

The two laboratory buildings we have already visited, are too of the new kind. In foreground, laboratory 2 ("Labo 2") and, in background "Labo 1".

These buildings are supported with pillars. Technique which presents two advantages: it allows to adapt easily to the ground underneath and it lets pass the wind under the building, preventing thus the accumulation of snow at the lee side of the building. The whole structure is firmly secured with metallic cables anchored in the rock.

The shelter of the sea water pump. From there tubes drive the water to the power station, about three hundred metres farther. It is a system using two concentric tubes, in the inner tube runs the sea water, in the outer tube flows, down to the sea, the warm salted remnant of the distillation. The whole is surrounded with an insulating layer protected by a metallic shield.

The power station. From there go power distribution cables, protected in metallic ducts, and drinking water distribution tubes (same system as for sea water, but in the inner tube flows fresh water). Flags indicate the presence of the ship, they are, from left to right, those of: Denmark, EPF (French Polar Expeditions), TAAF (Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises) Territory and France.

In the power station are three generators. Usually, two of them are in operation (either only one is active, or the two of them according to the energy needed) and the third one is under maintenance. There is also the system of distillation of sea water which is done, under partial vacuum, using the heath of the generators. This system had been in service for a few months, but unfortunately it failed one month after the beginning of winter campaign, making the flow of water in the tubes to stop, followed with a quick freezing of that water. We had, then until the end of 1967, to reverse to the previous campaigns' method, that is to make snow melt to get water.  (Later on, to prevent this problem to happen again, a compressed air tank will be added, allowing to push the water out of the tubes in case of failure of the distillation system.)

The "dormitory" Fillod building, where are the radio station, the expedition leader, André Hougron's office, and the sleeping rooms. In the radio station work Emile Guyon (technician) and André Coiffard (operator). The headset over the ears, André types the Morse incoming messages on a typewriter and sends outgoing messages using a Morse key. Every expedition member's incoming and outgoing personal messages are limited to seventy words a week. Service messages can be much longer. You can see, on foreground, the railway for the cart used to throw away trash into the sea.

The end of the railway used to throw away trash into the sea.  (Years later, when nothing suspected to pollute will be thrown away, this railway, as well as the monorail of the kitchen, will disappear and all the garbage remaillage stuck in the snow or in the ice of the underneath rock slopes will be removed, after a long and painstaking cleaning campaign.)

Main entrance of the "dormitory" building. On the left of the door, the fuel tank for the heating system and, on the right, the cistern where the persons "on service" have to throw shovelfuls of snow, which melt in the water warmed by electrical resistances, until it is full of water. The service of the base is assumed in turn, two people each day. It includes service in the restaurant, common rooms cleaning, and water to bring in the kitchen and other assistance to the cook. That day, they can wash and have a shower, on the condition that they fill up the cistern at the end of the day.

Another Fillod building, used as a supplies storehouse. In front are the trunks of people arrived with the last Thala Dan's rotation, in March 1967 (mine is the fourth from the right).

The white shelter of the cold storeroom (-18°C) where are preserved meat, fish and other frozen food. During summer, the outside temperature can rise a few degrees above 0°C, whilst in winter it can go down below -30°C. Most of the time during my stay it was around -25°C during winter. On the other hand, the wind can be very strong. We have had tempests with gusts of 250 km/h, that was our maximum, but the known record is over 300 km/h.

The road that starts at the laboratories, goes down to "le pré" and, then, goes up towards the accommodation building for summer-campaign people.

The "Riometers" antennae (receivers that measure, on four fixed frequencies between 13 and 75 MHz, the radio signal generated by the stars in the zenith direction). Every time the Earth rotation makes the antennae to point in the same direction of space, we measure the variation of the signal which gives information on the state of the ionosphere. A fifth 75 MHz antenna is a rotating antenna and needs a little more care because it must stop when the wind speed exceeds a certain threshold, then if it exceeds another threshold it must be immobilised with cables. Therefore, we must then, go out, in the tempest to secure the antenna.

On foreground, the "Base Marret" we have already spoken about, which uses wooden panels and an inside insulation, and, at the back, the Fillod building for accommodation of people during the summer campaign.

Beginning of a building site for a new laboratory. In the background, on the left, we can see the meteorological shelter for balloons launching.

Adélie penguins which were living there, come back every time the work stops. They will even come back when the building is finished and settle under the laboratory, mounted on pillars, at the very place where their nests were.

The new laboratory will accommodate a cosmic rays detector (Rayco), much bigger and heavier than the one used till now, and the radioactivity (Racea). The heavy weight of the Rayco detector (which use a lot of bricks of lead) would exceed the floor resistance of a building of the new kind, for that reason, it has been chosen a Fillod building.

Another construction site for a building of the new kind which will have two floors. At the ground floor, there will be: a very well equipped hospital with a modern operating theatre, dentist's chair, radiography, sick person's bedroom, physician's office and bedroom, etc.; expedition leader's office; bedrooms; toilets. At the first floor, there will be : bedrooms; toilets; a room with water basins; showers. Every member of the winter campaign will have his own room with a bed, a table, chairs and a wardrobe.

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