A weekend at Paris zoo

A weekend in Paris with your children means a visit to the city’s famous zoo, since after all these museums and monuments, you should also plan something that’s just plain fun! The new zoo is called Parc Zoologique de Paris, and it’s in Croisement Avenue  Daumesnil et de la route de la ceinture du Lac Paris 12, in Vincennes.

The zoo only recently reopened its doors after nine years of hard work on its buildings and structures, which was done in the name of a new type of zoo that no longer held animals sadly on display, but created environments for them and respected their needs and peculiarities.

There aren't cages in Par Zoologique anymore, but rather biomes where the inhabitants are integrated with nature according to their native habitat.

 

 

The zoo is an incomparable experience, the first in Europe that brought these innovative concepts to light. Visitors can walk through five different regions, such as the plains of Sahel-Sudan, Europe, Patagonia, and the tropics of Guyana and Madagascar. These regions haven’t just been built to look good, but also to give the animals a proper place to live. Visitors will thus have a better idea of how these animals normally live, and gain a better respect for nature.

The project cost around 108 million Euro, and the zoo now hosts over 180 different species in sixteen different natural habitats. 

Its been called the zoo of the century, expanding over an area of four kilometers of winding paths through lush vegetation, where traditional barriers have been replaced by innovative ways of keeping animals and guests close, yet separate.

It’s open all year round from, but from October to mid March its hours change and and it opens at 10 A.M. and closes at 6 P.M. On weekends, though, it’s hours are from 9:30 A.M. till 7:30 P.M.