A family day out at the PASS

The weather has been great for a few days now. After having her fill of bike rides and sporting activities with friends, Alice would like to feed her mind and exercise her little grey cells.A healthy mind in a healthy body… Time for a visit to the PASS, a Scientific Adventure Park in Frameries near Mons.
 

A wealth of experiences
 

From the moment you step inside, the Pass’erelle plunges us into a world of surprising experiences. Like a series of appetising titbits, the journey through this tunnel is studded with science games. You can test your senses and explore the world of invisibility. Alice moves objects remotely using vibrations in the air, fails to get through a tunnel filled with beams of light, pedals alongside a skeleton to see how her bones work… This is what you might call working up an appetite!After this great welcome, the PASS swallows us up into a world packed with experiments and discoveries.

Feel free to wear trainers here. It’s not the kind of museum where all you do is look!The Pass’âge of the adventurous, an acrobatic experience made up of zip wires, rope bridges, obstacles and slides, guides you through the first three exhibitions: inventions, sport and matéri’Oh. We take our time on the last of these, but not before challenging Usain Bolt to a race and providing live commentary for a football match!
 

The materials wall attracts our eye. Chair, skateboard, screens, vinyl, celluloid… Objects from every era are stuck to it, offering a rather surprising vision of weightlessness. Which is heaviest?Which is oldest?What material was used to make this landline telephone?A great opportunity to interact and a fun, eye-opening way of asking and answering questions. Alice has become rather sharp thanks to all the workshops, and is constantly asking me questions that I can’t answer…  “Why don’t we learn like this at school?It would be much better”. I distract her by telling her it’s time for lunch.
 

Science can really give you an appetite
 

It’s 12.30 already, how time flies. The sun’s still out, the terraces in the garden are the perfect setting to enjoy a sandwich from the cafe. Time for the children to have a break, they’re already enjoying the play area, giving their parents time to admire the architecture of this site which was partially renovated by Jean Nouvel. “Dad, I’ve heard that the session’s about to start, hurry up!”Coffee break over. The free screening of the film H2O is starting. 18 minutes that will make you think about water consumption and this fundamental human right. Amazing images are projected on the walls, ceiling and floor. The subject takes us back to nature. We decide to have a walk round the park, with its 22 hectares. The coal industry has left its mark, a lush green slag heap rises up before us, there is an observatory from which we can admire it. In the end, this “pile of rubbish” protects a whole history and is home to a precious ecosystem, which is a surprise for young and old alike!