The autonomous diver

If the Var happens to be the department of the historical cradle of diving, it is important to know that in June 1943, in full occupation, scuba diving was born in Bandol which thus becomes the city of discovery of the underwater world. Indeed and as it is related in the first pages of the legendary work by Jacques Yves Cousteau and Frédéric Dumas, "Le monde du silence", To which will be added Philippe Tailliez, the new autonomous diving suit developed in Paris with the engineer Emile Gagnan has just arrived at Bandol station. Those who would later become the Mousquemers then lived in the Villa Barry by the sea in the western part of the town. and will therefore choose this location to test the device. The results will be far beyond their expectations.