Photos

Some information taken straight from the La Rochelle Aquarium web site:

In response to the request of restorers and fishmongers and after a dozen years of experience and perfecting, in 1970 René Coutant created an aquarium-manufacturing factory in La Ville en Bois in La Rochelle: René Coutant-Aquariums and Storage Tanks.

Requests flooded in from all angles and René Coutant responded: a freshwater aquarium for Cadarache, the nuclear plant, for example, or a cylindrical aquarium for a biological centre, among others.

His children, Pascal and Roselyne – both in their twenties at the time – supported him in the family adventure. Then, alone, they open the largest aquarium in France on 1 April 1988.

On 1 April 2001, they officially opened the Aquarium of the third millennium, 6 times bigger than the old aquarium, in the heart of the city of La Rochelle.
Meanwhile, Coutant Aquariums will have designed or built the finest international aquariums such as the aquarium of Monaco, Noumea, Valencia (Spain), Madrid, Barcelona, Mallorca, Brest Oceanolopolis, Cité de la mer de Cherbourg, the Aquarium de la Porte Dorée (the old MAAO), the national marine aquarium in Plymouth, Porto Moniz, Madere, Portugal, etc.

René Coutant is at the roots of a family passion that will incite his children to continue his work and dreams of recreating the marine world. Every time Roselyne or Pascal Coutant recall the start of the adventure, it is childhood memories that surface. A common example of a family company where passion becomes profession and, over two generations, the children make their father’s dream come true.

The story so far:

1960 - René Coutant builds his first closed-circuit filtration systems
1970 - René Coutant opens a 250m2 aquarium in La Rochelle.
1975 - René Coutant passes the baton to his children.
1988 - Roselyne and Pascal Coutant open the largest aquarium in France with a surface area of 1600 m2 and with 550 000 litres of seawater.
1999 - In April, the 6 millionth visitor comes through the doors. The aquarium is the 3rd biggest attraction in the entire Poitou Charentes region.
2001 - Opening of the new La Rochelle aquarium, the last word in aquarium design and technology, with a surface area of 8 045 m², with 3 000 000 litres of seawater.
February 2002 - The one-millionth visitor arrives and is surprised by a little party.