Zoo de Beauval and Bourges

Sylvia has an upcoming exposé on pandas, so we thought we would visit Zoo de Beauval, which is the only zoo in France with pandas.

I am not a huge fan of zoos, but this one seemed well run.

The pandas were up and eating.  They need to eat a lot of bamboo!  They also have koalas; the only one who was awake was very cute.

Exotic North American animal

Grandparents, guess what Sylvia bought with some of her birthday money?

We stopped in the town of Bourges to check things out and to eat some dinner. 

Who was Jacques Coeur?

In about 1429 he formed a commercial partnership with two brothers named Godard; and in 1432 he was at Damascus, buying and bartering, and transporting the wares of the Levant—gall-nuts, wools and silks, mohair, brocades and carpets—to the interior of France by way of Narbonne. In the same year he established himself at Montpellier, and there began the gigantic operations which have made him illustrious among financiers. Details are wanting; but it is certain that in a few years he placed his country in a position to contend fairly well with the great trading republics of Italy, and acquired such a reputation as to be able, mere trader as he was, to render material assistance to the knights of Rhodes and to Venice itself.

In 1449, the great trader's glory was at its height. He had represented France in three embassies, and had supplied goods for the war which had ousted the English from Normandy. He was invested with various offices of state, and possessed the most colossal fortune that had ever been amassed by a private Frenchman. The sea was covered with his ships; he had 300 managers in his employ, and business houses in all the chief cities of France. He had built houses and chapels, and had founded colleges in Paris, Montpellier and Bourges. The house in Bourges was exceptionally magnificent and remains today one of the finest monuments of the Middle Ages in France. He also built there the sacristy of the cathedral and a sepulchral chapel for his family.

 

We also visited the cathedral in Bourges.