DORDOGNE - Aquarium du Perigord Nord

According to the bumf, this Aquarium is the largest fresh water aquarium in Europe, but don’t be fooled into thinking that largest means biggest variety. Maybe I’m being a little unfair because this was one of the things that I was really looking forward to, so perhaps my expectations were just too high.



The first thing that struck me was that it was like going into a swimming pool, but actually it was very well organised. The first section has lots of normal type fish such as carp, and then you move onto the predator section where there are huge, ugly looking creatures!

Moving on were more huge fish that looked like tiny sharks, but the obligingly swam past with their faces to the glass so I could see that they didn’t have sharp pointy teeth! The tanks are huge and form a wall either side so you do get a good view of the habitat, but these seemed a bit over full to me.

Just then there was an announcement that they were going to start feeding the Koi carp in the inner courtyard by the bar so I thought that’d be worth a look. The barriers were quite low – maybe 1m in total – and people are encouraged to put their hands in and touch/stroke the fish. The kids were having a great time, and if truth be told, the big kids too!

The carp are fed mussels by hand so the minute someone puts there hand in or goes near the glass they all come and try to bite you, but as they have no teeth it’s perfectly safe even for little ones. Visitors are invited to join in, but be warned - you might get a bit wet though as some of them are really big and they get quite overexcited.

After the carp feeding frenzy, I headed into the tropical section and then onto ‘Iguana Park’ where there are all manor of iguanas and lizards. Most interesting as far as I was concerned was the enclosure towards the end where they have the larger lizards and snakes including some huge pythons.

I was so busy looking what was ahead that I only caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of the model of a salamander and nearly jumped out of my skin! The very last section of the visit is where the big lizards sunbathe on trees, and one cheeky one even stuck his tongue out at me!

It was so hot that I decided to have a quick drink at the café/snack bar before heading home and it was while sitting here under the palm parasols once all the families had left that I realised that overall I had really enjoyed my visit.