PYRENEES ANIMAL PARK

Founded in 1999 by Serge Mounard, and sponsored by Nicolas Vanier, this vast 14-hectare park on the hillside is home to more than 500 animals and 120 wild species, including bears, wolves and lynx. Initially dedicated to the local fauna of the Pyrenees, it has grown and is now ranked among the most beautiful zoos in France. It shelters giant otters, isards, the mascots of the site: the famous marmots, but also ibexes, vultures, fallow deer, roe deer, and squirrels, all evolving in semi-liberty in a natural environment, or reorganized according to their usual environment. The Wet Forests area plunges you into the heart of the tropical forests. You can admire the pirouettes of the European otters in an immense basin, in underwater vision, and further on, the facetiousness of the saïmiris. The park also educates visitors about the protection of some of the world's most endangered species, such as the Bali starling. And that's not all! Meet the red pandas, Asian dwarf otters and curly pelicans. Your itinerary is well marked, from the heart of the pack to the land of the bears, where, following the line of the water, you are closer to nature. You go from one space to another: a wild gallery that presents scenes of the life of the fauna of Africa, America or Europe in hyperrealistic reconstitutions, amplified by real sound ambiences. You then immerse yourself in lush aviaries and observe the most talented fishing birds of our continent: grebes, mergansers, goldeneyes and eiders lead you in a frantic fishing party, overflown by the magical ballet of terns. The experience is fabulous. Militant, this exceptional park is also engaged in a fight to save the brown bear, the bearded vulture, the Iberian ibex and the Egyptian vulture. You can help them by contacting the Pyrenees Conservation endowment fund in order to participate in the different projects of safeguard, reintroduction and awareness. To prolong the magic, it is possible to sleep in one of the three ecologdes: the Refuge with the black wolves, the Den with the bears and the Trapper's Cabin with the gray wolves. Dinner and breakfast are served in the cabins. The park has also recently rehabilitated a barn and a mill, a few steps from the park, which you can rent by the week, with a pool and a Nordic bath.