We're all familiar with royal family sagas and banking dynasties, but never before has a single family so dominated the world of exploration as Auguste, Jacques and Bertrand Piccard. They have been inventing and exploring for 3 generations. The writer, Jacques Lacarrière, summed it up: "These three incarnate man's wildest dreams - metamorphosing into a fish or a bird. But what is even more amazing is that they have succeeded in transforming their dreams into reality."

According to the French Association Jules Verne Adventures: "Only the lunar astronauts can rival the Piccards in symbolising mankind's 20th century scientific and human spirit of adventure, as inspired by Jules Verne".

The conquest of the stratosphere and the deepest ocean, the first flight around the world in a balloon - such is the stuff of legend, of Captain Nemo and Phileas Fogg.