Park Zoo

As surprising as it may seem, on your left you’ll find a zoological area home to several hundred animals. Its history began in 1858, just one year after the park opened. Under the direction of Prefect Claude-Marius Vaïsse, a zoological space was created right here. At first, it was not yet a zoo in the modern sense of the word, but an educational farm with domestic animals and deer. The first truly exotic animals arrived soon afterward. A bear was donated to the city by a private individual, and landscape architect Denis Bühler personally designed a cage to house it. This marked the beginning of the gradual transformation of the farm into a true menagerie. Today, this zoo is the second oldest in France and, above all, the country’s largest completely free zoo — a unique feature it has preserved since its origins. And its history has included more than a few unusual episodes, from a tigress escaping, to a lion drowning after being pushed into the water by a lioness, and even the exceptional birth of 25 anacondas in 1981.