1st 2019 Zoo Day

Last year, we went to the Zoa Parc zoo in Sanary-sur-Mer twice. Once with Kris, once with Mom. Already last year, they had added some new exhibits, a huge playground and were announcing plans to open a petting zoo part in Spring 2019. When I noticed that a season's pass would pay for itself in just three visits a year and combined the price element with the closeness element (just a thirty-minute drive away) and the fun element (close-up views of animals, huge playground, petting zoo plans, some animals you can feed), I decided it would be a good idea to get season's passes for the girls and I so that we can hit up the zoo whenever we have a free Saturday. Today was the first appropriate day of the calendar year. We arranged to meet our friend Guillaume there. We got our season passes, a ticket for Guillaume, and were off, with Maëva leading the way to her favorite sites! It was a lovely sunny day and we spent five hours in the zoo watching the animals, playing on the playground and having lunch. Spring is probably a better time of year to see a lot of the animals than in the hot summer when we've gone to the zoo in the past. Several animals were up and moving around today that we'd never seen moving around before like the ocelot and the serval. There was also a very handsome colorful male bird (not sure what) clearly engaged in a mating dance to the annoyance of his female companion. Maëva remarked that the female didn't seem to be too impressed by the male's efforts. Later, we had a bit of fun playing facial expression charades based on the chimpanzee mood chart they had up.
Favorite animal sights of the day:
For Tanya: Napping armadillo. I had no idea they slept this way. He was completely sprawled out on his back and seemed very vulnerable.
For Maëva: Fennec. He was up and moving around this morning. With his big ears and fluffy fur, Maëva thinks he looks cute and cuddly. She's decided to use her saved up pocket money to buy a fennec stuffy next time we go back.
For Laureva: Red lemurs. They were napping when we got there. I think she like their coloring and thought they looked cute all curled up.