A beautiful day off

The weather was great yesterday and our hosts were kind enough to give us the day off and the use of their car to go enjoy it! We decided to take the kids out for something they would enjoy, so we headed to Royan to the La Palmre Zoo. There were a couple of let downs because of it being the slow season and a weekday when all the kids are in school here...all of the zoo shops and eating areas were closed and they normally have a sea lion and bird show. We did at least get to see the sea lions practicing a little for their shows.

We realized shortly after we started looking around that the animals must be used to being fed by visitors (although I'm pretty sure there were signs asking people not to) since most of the animals that were awake were keen to get as close to us as possible in hopes of getting a snack. The zebras followed us all around their habitat and the meerkats watched our hands intently and seemed to be yelling at each other that whatever we happened to drop was theirs.

Here was the super-friendly giraffe we met...

When I asked Evan what her favorite animal was, guess what she said...the pelican!

They also had a little petting zoo with a bunch of goats where we saw first hand why all the animals are so friendly...one man walked up and starting throwing popcorn to all the goats!

So all in all it was a good day, and the kids had lots of fun. We meant to stop by the beach on the way home...we were told it was really pretty and that wild pigs like to go down and splash around in the water (and that part of the beach was clothing optional but should be "safe" this time of year), but the kids were tired and it was getting late. Perhaps we will go back next week before we leave.

Speaking of traveling, it looks like we will be headed to Bulgaria when we leave France.