<P> Director and film crew spent more than 13 months at the Dumont d'Urville Station , where the Institut polaire français Paul - Émile Victor is based . Although the penguins ' meeting place , one of four in Antarctica , was known to be near , the day on which it occurs is not known , so they had to be ready every day . Fortunately , the gathering that year was huge -- more than 1,200 penguins , compared with the norm of a few hundred . </P>
region of antarctica where march of the penguins filmed
Dumont d'Urville Station