Despite Zoo Parc de Beauval having pandas for 10 years, and France not being all that far away from the UK, this year I finally made my first visit to see the French pandas! Pre-pandemic I thought I might book a trip in the Summer or Autumn of 2020, which of course didn’t happen. But in February I was just checking out the Beauval website to see how the prices looked across the year when I saw a Winter deal which lasted until the end of March, which I couldn’t resist, so this was a very last minute planned trip! This trip was in early March 2022 and we went for 2 full days at the zoo, with a couple of hours added on on the day of our arrival. For me this was a perfect amount of time for a panda trip to see this fantastic zoological park and gardens. Whilst I had seem pictures of the pandas themselves before, I had no idea what the enclosure or surroundings looked like at all – I sure was impressed with the elaborate Chinese design, it was really quite something.
I ended up taking almost 3000 photos at Beauval, so while this post is photo-heavy, this is the extreme cut-down number of adorable panda photos that I took!
HUAN HUAN + YUAN DU DU + HUAN LI LI
Huan Huan and the baby twins Yuan Du Du and Huan Li Li were the first pandas we saw when arriving at the panda enclosure on our first day – with Huan Huan and a baby sitting out in the middle of the enclosure as we walked up to the viewing. This trio just made for the most adorable viewing! At the time the cubs were only 7 months old, so were still gaining confidence in walking and climbing, definitely a highlight of all of my panda holidays. The day we were leaving was the first time they went outside, I’m a bit gutted to have missed that but honestly after not having seen baby pandas in over 2 years, it was a relief just to get to see a baby panda^ I can’t tell the babies apart but they really did have quite different personalities, with one seeming more adventurous and climbing all around the enclosure and trying to enjoy bamboo like mum, and the other being a little more shy opting to sit in the hammock. Only in the last few hours of our visit over 2 and a bit days did we actually see all three together – on the first afternoon and the first full day we only ever say one cub with Huan Huan, but luckily on the last day we went back in the late afternoon and there were both cubs! Watching the cubs with Huan Huan was also great – the hammock seemed to be the best place to sit, because if a cub (or both even) was in it and Huan Huan wanted to sit there, she would just toss them out and get comfy herself! One afternoon Huan Huan got to go outside on her own, she was also very active outside and walked through the stream and pond whilst exploring. We went back to the panda enclosure several times across the day and that really worked well to be able to see the cubs active, especially as they were still quite small and needed lots of rest. Now I will need to plan another trip to be able to see the cubs (albeit not so little now) outside!
YUAN ZI
Yuan Zi is the adult male and dad to Yuan Meng and twins Huan Du Du and Yuan Li Li – he’s a pretty adorable guy! Yuan Zi shares his enclosure time with Yuan Meng, so when one was inside, the other was outside and they alternated between the days. This worked well as it meant both could be seen inside and out. On the first afternoon Yuan Zi was outside but not so active, luckily on our third day he was very active outside and was making full use of his outdoor space. There are a range of climbing frames, trees, and rocks to climb, play and lean on along with a pond. We managed to catch the keeper talk/feeding session when he was outside which was lovely to see. Then on the same afternoon there was some filming going on by his enclosure, so the keeper was feeding him outside again so we were lucky to catch that too! He seemed to have a really lovely relationship with the keeper, later in the afternoon the keeper was driving away from the enclosure on a golf cart, Yuan Zi heard the sound and came running over in hopes that there might be a treat for him.
YUAN MENG
Yuan Meng is the first born cub at Beauval – he was born in 2017 so was 4.5 years old when I saw him. He’s very much fitting the role of a playful young panda! Yuan Meng was inside on our first afternoon and was enjoying a snooze, so we really got to see his best side on the second day when it was his turn to go outside – it was fantastic to see. He was climbing trees, running around, quickly manoeuvring up and down climbing frames and rolling in some dirt resulting in a pretty mucky panda^ He was also active for a lot of the day, which meant we could see him doing different things across the day, in fact I’m not sure he spent any time sleeping when he was outside. Yuan Meng was truly a joy to watch!
YUAN MENG, HUAN HUAN, YUAN DU DU + HUAN LI LI
The set-up of the indoor enclosures with glass between the male and female sides means the pandas can see each other – and that was exactly what we were lucky enough to see! Yuan Meng was very interested in walking alongside the glass and checking in on mum and his little sisters. It was even more adorable when one of the twins went up to the glass to see older brother too, it was just the sweetest interaction and an absolute highlight of seeing the pandas at Beauval!
Of course, while this trip was specifically to see the pandas at Beauval and most time was spent watching them, the zoo itself is a huge place with so many different animals to see, so there will be an another post about what else you can visit at Beauval along with where to stay and how to get there – keep an eye out for that soon!