Zooparc de Beauval - St Aignan. A superb zoo in Central France.

A great day out for all the family. Although this particular attraction is not actually inside my self imposed boundaries of Indre, Cher, Allier and Creuse, I have decided to include this as one of the first major family attractions to be added to this site because it is so good!

It is just outside the border of North Indre in the department 41 Eure-et-Loire in the Loire Valley and is set just outside the village of St Aignan. The entire area is well worth a visit (especially for wine and cheese lovers) as there is a copious quantity of places to visit (chateaux, gardens and troglodyte caves), as well as an abundance of caves to taste wine and cheese of the area.

The ZooParc of Beauval is beautifully laid out and is easy to find. Once inside the gates (17 euros for adults) you will be able to see around 4000 animals, ranging from Flamingos to Elephants and Zebras.

There are plenty of trees shading the pathways, which for the most part are suitable for pushchairs and wheelchair users - although there are one or two paths that are steep or involve steps.

There are indoor and outdoor animal areas, the most impressive being the mini safari park where you can see Giraffes, Zebras, Rhinos etc all at very close quarter - just a ditch, small wall and a single line electric fence between you and them. It makes for some good photography.

Several times a day you can experience the bird and sea lion show - half hour for each, and very entertaining (you may want a cushion though!).

There are several restaurants / fast food / take-aways around the park - we went to one of the restaurants and were pleasantly surprised at the price. They do not overcharge ad the food was very good. For example - a plate of turkey in gravy with a huge amount of chips was 7€. A bottle of wine (which was local and very nice) was 6,50€.

Here's an overview of what's on the park......

5 elephants on 5 hectares (the largest in elephant plain in France)
3 hectares of African Savannah with over 80 animals from giraffes to marabous
One of the biggest sea lion swimming pools in Europe (seating for 1500 spectators)
Choreographed bird show with 50 birds of prey
Rare animals include white lions and white tigers (over 40 big cats in total)
Tropical greenhouses with 600 exotic birds
Chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans (more than 250 apes and monkeys in total)
Vivarium with more than 250 snakes and 3m long crocodiles

Beauval finances projects in the wild as well as European programmes and more than 160 babies are born each year.

TARIFF:
Day pass: 18€ adults. Children (3 to 10 year olds) 13€

2 day pass: 27€ adults. Children (3 to 10 year olds) 19,50€

Year pass: 54€ adults. Children (3 to 10 year olds) 34€

Open Times:

Open every day, all year round - 9am till nightfall

ZooParc de Beauval
41110 St Aignan
tel. (33) 02.54.75.5000
Fax. (33)02.54.75.5001

OUR RATING: FIVE STAR - a must see

If you want to use any of the images (other than from the PHOTO LIBRARY which are free to use) please contact us to discuss their use.

Text from this site is not permitted to be copied and re-used in any format.