Return to welcome
The curator
Gilbert & Lionel Carlès

The curator, Lionel Carlès

Born in Nice in 1970 he descends from an old Tourrettan family  by his father Gilbert Carlès and his mother Jeannine née Chiabaut  He is a distant relative of the Chabauds of Tourrette,ancient Lords of the village for five centuries from 1175-1684
    His father an artist by profession and especially fascinated by drawings and paintings of animals,introduced him to the beauty of nature and animal life at a very early age
   Drawn towards wildlife he spent his college years studying at the Antibes horticultural technical High school, followed in 1988 by studies at the Nice Sophia-Antipolis University, where he concentrated on natural science for which he obtained a degree and teaching diploma.
 Worked for the National Park of Mercantour during ten months as part of the ground team entrusted with the scientific study of wolves in the district of the Vesubian valley.
   From 1997 onwards he undertook  the long and exacting task of recording their observations and different bibliographic findings with his best friend Ludovic Thébault ,an enthusiastic botanist also They undertook the enormous  task  of listing every specie of plant found in the Maritime Alps together with their location ,which constituted a library of thousands of adiposities.
Lionel Carlès and visitors
With regard to the museum, in 1993 Lionel Carlès, still a student, was offered the job as curator by the mayor of Tourrette-Levens Doctor Alain Frère, who knowing his interest  for entomology, suggested that he create a municipal natural history museum at the castle from collections offered by the parish.
The castle having been purchased a year earlier by the parish.From that day onwards Lionel Carlès took care of the museum collection faithfully. From 1993 to 1995 as a volunteer worker and from 1995 as a parish worker assigned to the maintenance and the promotion of the castle museum of natural history in Tourrette-Levens.
  Helped by his father, an infatuated and untiring volunteer worker, he continued to embellish the museum with donations received from his acquaintances amongst the nature lovers.

Lionel Carlès assisted by Gilbert Carlès, volunteer worker, has created most of the texts and photos on this site....

La Flore des Alpes-Maritimes
link (in French language)

    The Website is happy to introduce you to  « Marion Carlès » the future curator of 2025! (daughter of the present curator) and her godfather who takes care of the patrimony Luc Nativel, the cheek pincher is the deputy mayor Mr. Georges Barrière.