IN THIS STUNNING NEW SERIES, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES IN FRANCE AND EUROPE WILL LAY BARE THEIR WILDEST SECRETS.

Mont Saint-Michel, the Loire valley châteaux, Alhambra or Bastei bridge… Every year, these breathtaking sites attract tourists from across the world. But hidden in the meanderings off the beaten track, fascinating and unexpected stories unfold : the stories of the wildlife that inhabits these places. For, although these famous European cultural heritage sites have been built over the centuries, they are located within areas of outstanding natural beauty, with their own iconic species such as the Red deer of Chambord, the Black stork of Pont Bastei or the toads of the Alhambra. Today, the preservation of these exceptional sites can no longer be done without taking into account the wildlife. And after several centuries of ignoring each other, these two worlds are finally coming together to show that natural and historical heritage can become allies! Over the course of four seasons, this prestigious documentary collection revisits the great European heritage sites from the perspective of the wildlife that inhabits them, offering an unusual look at these mythical sites, with fur, feathers or scales.

In the 20th century, the oceans became strategic battlegrounds and the world’s major powers built increasingly powerful warships.
Unfortunately, these Clashes of Titans were rarely filmed, and the wrecks of some of these defeated giants now lie at the bottom of the ocean.

Co-produced in close collaboration with the famous video game World of Warships, this second season brings us to the discovery of the famous battleship “Bismarck”, the dreadful German U-boats, the extreme and unknown adventures of the Arctic naval convoys, and the story of the French navy during the Second World War. With the help of historians, engineers, architects and senior officers, this new season will immerse the viewer in the greatest naval battles of the 20th century ultra- realistic 3D CGI and drill down into the heart of the superstructures that fought them, uncovering their complex engineering and technological feats.

Deep in the heart of Europe, scientists and naturalists are in a race against time to reveal the secrets of a strange and extraordinary creature: the Olm, or cave salamander. Imagine a subterranean world of cathedral caves and unexplored underground rivers. In recent years, this Terra Incognita, in central and southeastern Europe, has become the site of major scientific expeditions. They come because this labyrinth of caves between Croatia and Slovenia is the land of the olm, an animal that some say resembles a baby dragon. A tiny amphibian with an extraterrestrial look, the olm is sometimes called the proteus or “human fish” for its translucent skin.

And it possesses superpowers that have fascinated scientists for more than two hundred years: the ability to regenerate its limbs, highly developed senses, unusually long life-expectancy, and absence of any signs of aging … Some think the olm may hold the key to eternal youth. Thanks to progress in imaging techniques and genetics, studies of the olm are just beginning to offer clues to the secrets of its superpowers along with hopes of promising developments for medical science in the future. But the habitat of the olm is under environmental and human threat and the little dragon could well disappear before revealing its secrets. Scientists and biologists across Europe have mobilized to save the species before it’s too late.

It was the top predator of the Ice Age, the king of the vast frozen steppes from Asia to Europe… Then suddenly – the Cave Lion disappeared from the face of the Earth some 15,000 years ago. Solving the mystery of its extinction and understanding how this mythical animal lived, is the mission of Philippe Fosse, world specialist on this species. His “Holy Grail”: to find an intact body of a Cave Lion.

For this journey back in time, the paleontologist will venture to the farthest reaches of Siberia where, in recent years, melting permafrost has revealed sleeping giants such as woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos, species that also vanished thousands of years ago.

It’s along the most remote riverbanks of Yakutia, that Philippe Fosse and a team of Franco-Russian scientists will look for signs of this animal. He hopes to find a well- preserved Cave Lion carcass within the subsurface layers of permanently frozen soil, rock and ice known as permafrost. A discovery that could shed new light on the mysteries surrounding the great extinctions of the Ice Age.

An exceptional human and scientific adventure from the paintings of France’s Chauvet Caves to the frozen rivers of Siberia.

Alain Mabanckou – the renowned novelist, poet, journalist and academic – takes us on a journey that follows the trajectory of his life, from Congo-Brazzaville, where he was born, to France and the United States of America. In each of the four significant cities on his path: Pointe-Noire, Paris, Detroit, Los Angeles, he’s the personification of the modern African, drawing us into his thoughts and daydreams, like a long cinematographic tracking shot of people he’s met… places he’s seen.

In assessing the writings of explorers and adventurers – whether from recent centuries or present day, from slavery to decolonization – he notes a consistently “exotic” and paternalistic take on Africa and Africans, where a Black man is more an object of curiosity than a human being… A savage, inferior in every way. With his great laugh, he demolishes this narrow view of humanity while leading us to the doors of great pre-Pharaonic Black civilizations.

We journey through our History through Mabanckou’s eyes. It’s the story that all human beings have in common, whether we like it or not… whether we’re brave enough to face it or not.