Parc Merveilleux

A few weeks ago we took a little trip to Parc Merveilleux in Bettembourg, just outside Luxembourg City.  It's kind of a cross between a zoo and an amusement park, with excellent playgrounds thrown in, all in a beautiful, woodsy setting.  It was fantastic, merveilleux, you might say...  It reminded me of Children's Fairyland in Oakland but even better because of all the animals.

Boy and gorilla:

Right by the entrance was our first fairy tale.  This is the hilariously named Grimm's story, "The Wishing-Table, The Gold-Ass, and the Cudgel in the Sack."   I vaguely remembered the story, which is written there in French next to the picture.  The kids loved the story but the picture even more.  Check out where the gold is dropping from:

Right next to it was a donkey which you could feed money in exchange for a "gold" (chocolate) coin:

The kids were disappointed that the coins only fell out of the donkey's mouth.  I wasn't.

Then we moved on to the animals.  First the cutest little bunny village ever:

Then, more exotic animals, like this electric eel.  You just see Will's arm because that's as close as he was willing to get:

An iguana:

A bright blue tree frog:

Penguins:

Creepy, leaf-look-alike bugs:

Crocodiles:

Desert sand foxes:

And these little monkeys.  They were so cute I must've taken 50 pictures of them.  Like Will in the Louvre or Kate and the tulips, all the pictures won't be posted here.

They were so fascinated by my camera.  I could just see them puzzling out what it was and how they could get their little paws on it.

They kept turning their heads to look at me from every possible angle, till they were almost upside down:

So cute!  I really wanted to stick one in my purse and take it home with me but I resisted.

Then Will's favorite:  the piranha.  One of the creepiest things I've ever seen.  It kept opening and closing its mouth over and over, flashing those sharp white teeth.  Weird.

Three guesses as to why Will loved these pigs:

Then on to the playgrounds.  Sleeping giant:

Giant chain-link spiderweb:

And this huge one that kept Will busy for a good hour:

Kate liked this one:

Peekaboo!

Finally, onto the fairy tales.  Scattered around the park were these little houses.  Inside each one were animated puppets acting out a fairy tale.  I think this one is Sleeping Beauty.

You could choose to listen to the story in German, French or Luxembourgish:

Even though she couldn't really understand the stories, Kate was transfixed:

She literally sprinted from one fairy tale to another:

Here's the Pied Piper.  In addition to the fake rats, there were real ones running around!

There were also a few rides.  Here's Will trying to dodge the camera:

But then he crashed into the wall.  Serves him right!

This was probably one of our favorite outings ever, just a short drive from Lux city.  We will definitely be back!