Some words as I visited here and the accompanying monkey park recently ….
The Parc des Félins was very enjoyable. The start of my visit was on the train ride which had interesting information about the animals there … and then suddenly it became rather dramatised as the train passes 3 forest hollows. One shows a cabin in the woods in symbiosis with the nature around it. And then the train goes into another hollow where the cabin is now surrounded by logs and also is close to a tiger’s pelt. The third hollow the train passes is most dramatic - the cabin is gone, and the surrounding area has now been turned into an oil well.
I do see the worthwhile message conveyed here .. but all the same I feel it wouldn’t hurt to clarify that this slippery slope isn’t necessary of all such cabins in the woods. For that matter, when I think about it - few oil wells are located in erstwhile jungles ! But … there is a point being made here.
The cat area itself is very nicely done - with the larger maps concisely laid out. The smaller maps however show the codes of enclosures but don’t have the key to what is in them … which is slightly annoying. Inevitably I didn’t manage to see every last cat, but I still at least saw most of them. I think highlights of mine were to see two leopards in a tree act interesting - I really admired just how naturalistic the enclosures and socialisation here were. The aforementioned ocelot was visible, but asleep in a ball. On my way out, I saw that the goat-farm had picnic tables scattered around ….nothing bad could possibly happen.
And so then I went on a fairly short walk to the neighbouring monkey park. It was nice - though not quite as remarkable as the cat park. The layout was interesting - it is essentially a circuit - taking one through a forest for Barbary macaques, and then around some islands for other monkeys. On a hot day like this the forest provided nice shade, but unfortunately, the circuit area was in broad, broad daylight. The species here are nice, but nothing greatly unusual. There is a parrot area with some walkthroughs and an indoor barn. Overall it’s a nice enough place to justify doing both in one day, but if you have only one place available for that day … the cat place is far more worth it in my opinion.
The Parc des Félins was very enjoyable. The start of my visit was on the train ride which had interesting information about the animals there … and then suddenly it became rather dramatised as the train passes 3 forest hollows. One shows a cabin in the woods in symbiosis with the nature around it. And then the train goes into another hollow where the cabin is now surrounded by logs and also is close to a tiger’s pelt. The third hollow the train passes is most dramatic - the cabin is gone, and the surrounding area has now been turned into an oil well.
I do see the worthwhile message conveyed here .. but all the same I feel it wouldn’t hurt to clarify that this slippery slope isn’t necessary of all such cabins in the woods. For that matter, when I think about it - few oil wells are located in erstwhile jungles ! But … there is a point being made here.
The cat area itself is very nicely done - with the larger maps concisely laid out. The smaller maps however show the codes of enclosures but don’t have the key to what is in them … which is slightly annoying. Inevitably I didn’t manage to see every last cat, but I still at least saw most of them. I think highlights of mine were to see two leopards in a tree act interesting - I really admired just how naturalistic the enclosures and socialisation here were. The aforementioned ocelot was visible, but asleep in a ball. On my way out, I saw that the goat-farm had picnic tables scattered around ….nothing bad could possibly happen.
And so then I went on a fairly short walk to the neighbouring monkey park. It was nice - though not quite as remarkable as the cat park. The layout was interesting - it is essentially a circuit - taking one through a forest for Barbary macaques, and then around some islands for other monkeys. On a hot day like this the forest provided nice shade, but unfortunately, the circuit area was in broad, broad daylight. The species here are nice, but nothing greatly unusual. There is a parrot area with some walkthroughs and an indoor barn. Overall it’s a nice enough place to justify doing both in one day, but if you have only one place available for that day … the cat place is far more worth it in my opinion.