The inventor Nicolas FLORINE

This photo shows the paternal grandfather of Ivàn, creator of ÔÔ Paradis des Sens, with his wife Joséphine. Nicolas FLORINE was born in Batoumi in 1891 to a Georgian mother and a Russian father from St Petersburg. He studied aeronautical engineering in St. Petersburg, but the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917. He sought asylum in 30 countries, and Belgium was the first to accept him. He had already come to Belgium for the 1910 World Fair with his father and sister Olga. His father was one of Tsar Nicholas II's 3 advisors on sea and river routes. He built the Port of Sebastopol. Nicolas was already learning French in St. Petersburg. In 1933, he invented the world's 1st helicopter at Rhodes-St-Genèse near Brussels. Ivàn takes after his grandfather Nicolas a sense of "doing things differently", which is why innovation is so important to him.

If you'd like to find out more about engineer Nicolas FLORINE, we invite you to visit the beautiful Musée Royal de l'Armée et de l'Aviation in Brussels, located at the Cinquantenaire. On the second floor, at the far end, you'll find the Espace FLORINE.

We return to the Main Hall to go to the Terrace, preferably through the bay window. Here you'll see a small signpost with QR-Codes 17 to 21.

Note that if the weather doesn't allow it, you'll find the same sign next to the scales in the Main Hall, so you'll still have access to explanations of the various things to see "in acceptable weather conditions".