100 Francs Jules Dumont d'Urville

Dumont d'Urville completed three major Pacific and Antarctic voyages before dying in France's first major railway disaster in 1842 — a derailment near Versailles that killed over fifty passengers when wooden carriages caught fire. The commemorative was issued 150 years after that wreck, which also claimed his wife and son.

The Versailles rail disaster accelerated French railway safety legislation, though slowly. That d'Urville's death came not at sea but in a burning train carriage remains one of exploration history's more brutal ironies.