Parc Floral

Parc Floral de la Source is a terrific park located about one minute's walk from the math department building where Dave works. It's difficult to describe exactly -- it's sort of like a zoo, but where most of the cages and animals have been replaced by gardens.

In any case, it's fantastic. After some initial deliberations (in hindsight, prompted mostly because exasperated parents were balking at the thought of ever taking these children anywhere in public ever again), we opted to buy season passes for all of us. Boy, was THAT the right decision, even though the season (March 2007 to March 2008) is about half over; this is definitely a place where we could spend a lot of time.

Marauding gangs of peacocks patrol the grounds, waiting for unwitting American tourists to leave large chunks of baguette sitting on the picnic tables next to them. Yes, that was us; we couldn't believe how bold that bird was! There are acres and acres (nearly 100, to be exact) of manicured gardens and lovely paths. There is a terrific climbing structure and a slide about 3 stories high for the kids (see the attached video below). There is an indoor butterfly exhibit that we still haven't gotten around to visiting yet. There are, as you can see from the picture of Betsy, animals to visit -- mostly in the goat and pony family. There is -- I'm not kidding -- the main source of the Loiret, our local river and the shortest tributary of the Loire, where the river literally bubbles up from a hole in the ground. It is actually possible to stand beside the exact starting place of a pretty good-sized river! I'm sure I could go on, but we haven't even gotten around to exploring the whole place yet.