In the press

In 1785, Louis XVI entrusts Captain La Pérouse with the greatest round-the-world exploration expedition. Aboard two ships, the Boussole and the Astrolabe, sailors, officers and scholars are set to travel the oceans, at all latitudes and in all weather. In 1788, the navigator and his two hundred and twenty crew are shipwrecked in the South Pacific. The "La Pérouse mystery" begins... Over the past twenty five years, seven research expeditions have been carried out by the Association Salomon to shed light on the fate of this celebrated expedition.

The second expedition in the South Pacific, in Vanikoro, where La Pérouse was shipwrecked, during a cyclone, one night in 1788, when both ships went down. The aim is to find the "treasure" sought by scientists, their collections, their discoveries. On land, 35 days of excavation are fruitless. It is at sea that "the" discovery is made: the skeleton of a European man aged between 35 and 45. A full-blown investigation begins.

The third expedition to Vanikoro, where La Pérouse was shipwrecked in 1788. The underwater site dubbed "La Faille", with its wealth of archaeological finds, proves to be the resting place of La Pérouse's ship the Boussole. No sailors probably survived the storm. The other ship however, the Astrolabe, grounded, leading to the hypothesis of a survivors' camp on land.

The final instalment of a thrilling investigation into the disappearance of the La Pérouse expedition. This voyage to discover the world, the greatest conducted since the Enlightenment, commissioned by King Louis XVI in 1785, came to an end three years later when the vessels disappeared in the South Pacific.