Cats and Not Cats

I know, it's mostly just a fun list

 

Is meerkat ever spelled meercat?

 

It was at Noah's Ark when I visited a couple of years ago

 

Thanks for pointing that out! Still counts though *G*

 

I wholeheartedly agree! If you have not been there you really need to, especially since you are in London and can take the Eurostar straight to Paris. Of course getting to the park from Paris takes a bit of effort, but well worth it.

 

It is definitely on my list. Unfortunately I have a 7 days a week job so when I do get time off it's oversubscribed!

 

It looks like a lovely place to visit for a cat lover. How do you get there from paris? Do you need to take the RER and then the bus or are they two alternative options? I didn't think the website was very clear about this.

 

When I went to Parc Felins the first time, exactly one year ago, I took the RER from Paris Magenta station (which is connected to the Gare du Nord where the Eurostar arrives) to Tournan En Brie. From there I took a taxi to Fontenay-Tresigny, a charming small town that has the closest hotel to the park. I then took a taxi from the hotel to the park and back again, which added up and was a bit of an inconvenience.

I saw this year, however, there is a bus stop on the road outside the park and I did see a couple visitors use it, so it may be possible to get there by bus.

However, I decided this year it would be easier to rent a car. This was far easier going from hotel to park (and if you want to explore the surrounding countryside - I did a quick drive to the very nice looking town of Collumiers). But the bad part - you Europeans are going to laugh your heads off at my naivete - is that I was dumb enough to rent my car at the Gare du Nord and drive in downtown Paris. Getting out of town was actually not that bad (although I got lost twice on the way to Fontenay because I had not printed clear enough directions from Google). But returning the car was a nightmare. It took me one hour to get from the freeway offramp to the (completely unmarked) rental return lot - which is only a distance of one mile. If I had to do it again, I would take the train to an outlying town that has a rental car near the train station, or try to figure out how to get there on bus.

 

That is a bit of a 'schoolboy error', but you're not the only one to make it - we made a similar mistake earlier this year when we decided to drive to the Brighton Sea Life Centre on a Saturday afternoon, which is right on the seafront in the middle of Brighton. Yikes, that was bad. Daytripper traffic on the way in and crowds leaving the football on the way out. No dual carriageways, lots of traffic lights, gridlocked streets. Never again!

 

thanks for the information arizona docent. i'm probably going to paris next year and i would love to visit parc des felins while i'm there.