1980. Françoise Delord opens a bird park at Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher. Parakeets, flamingos, a few birds of prey. Nothing that hints at what the place will become.
Forty-six years later: forty-six hectares, eight hundred species, a one-hectare equatorial dome, a cable car, koalas, wombats, manatees. Visiting Beauval Zoo does not slot in between two châteaux. It is a whole day, and the park itself advises taking two.
The pandas, since that is the first question
Best answered straight away, and without hedging.
Huan Huan and Yuan Zi went back to China on 25 November 2025, after thirteen years here. Their son Yuan Meng, the first panda cub born in France, in 2017, had already left in July 2023.
That leaves the twins Yuandudu and Huanlili, born on 2 August 2021 and visible at the Heights of China. They turned five on 2 August 2026, and the park has said this would be their last birthday in France. Their departure is announced for the coming months, with a stay guaranteed at least until January 2027. No date has been made public.
A letter of intent signed in Beijing on 4 December 2025 provides for two new pandas, a male and a female, on a ten-year loan from 2027. A signed intention is not a dated arrival.
If the pandas are your only reason for coming, check before you book. If they are one bonus among several, change nothing: there is enough here to fill two days without them.
The Dome, the Nuage and what has just opened
The Equatorial Dome, opened in 2020: one hectare under thirty-eight metres of glass, twenty-six degrees all year round, nineteen pools, two hundred species. The Caribbean manatees live there in a group of about fifteen, and a small male was born on 12 January 2026. You also come across giant otters, pygmy hippos, Komodo dragons and Aldabra giant tortoises. Two hours for this one building, and you never notice them pass.
Le Nuage de Beauval, an eight-hundred-metre cable car more than forty metres up, twenty-four cabins of which eight have glass floors, four minutes from end to end. Included in the ticket, no separate booking, and you can ride it as often as you like.
The Australian Greenhouse (Serre Australienne) holds the five koalas, the only ones in France, with an educational talk at 10.45am and 2pm, along with Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroos and three Tasmanian devils. The Bird Tropical Greenhouse (Serre Tropicale des Oiseaux) unfolds over two thousand square metres and four hundred and fifty birds, many of them flying free.
Three new spaces opened on 4 April 2026, all included in the ticket. Bucolia, a one-hectare farm drawn from the Sologne and the Berry: Solognot sheep, Grand Noir du Berry donkeys, Poitevine goats, Contres hens, and an old carousel that costs nothing. A nice nod to the region, and the ideal ground for the very young. The Red Lands (Les Terres Rouges), four thousand five hundred square metres of Australia with red kangaroos, wallabies, emus and, above all, Mersey and Sandy, the only wombats on view in France. Les Roches Vives, finally, a water play area worth remembering on a day of heatwave.
The two shows, included
Les Maîtres des Airs, thirty minutes of free flight in a three-thousand-seat amphitheatre, reached by the cable car. L’Odyssée des Lions de Mer, twenty minutes in a fifteen-hundred-seat water amphitheatre, staged since 1995.
Both run until 15 November 2026, at least two performances a day. The park asks you to turn up thirty minutes early: that is the real advice of the day, seats go quickly and times shift with the crowds.
2026 prices
| Ticket | Dated, online | Undated or at the gate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 day adult, 11 and over | €39 | €43 |
| 1 day child, 3 to 10 | €32 | €36 |
| 2 days adult | €63 | €70 |
| 2 days child | €52 | €59 |
Free for under-threes. Mind the age bands: at eleven, you pay the adult rate. The two-day ticket is only valid on two consecutive days.
Buying online with a date saves four euros a head. On the other hand, contrary to what one often reads, booking is not compulsory and no arrival slot is imposed: the official FAQ is explicit. The dated ticket is simply cheaper, and it spares you the queue.
Parking is free: eight car parks, around four thousand spaces, bays for motorhomes, reduced-mobility visitors and bicycles, fifty charging points at the south entrance. On presentation of an SNCF travel ticket, the desk grants two euros off. The Zen Pass at €15 gives skip-the-line access and reserved seats at the shows: useful in the thick of August, superfluous in September.
Opening times
The park is open all year, every day, public holidays included, from 9am until nightfall. The zoo does not publish a seasonal grid but a day-by-day calendar: choose your date on its site to learn the exact closing time, which runs from 5pm in winter to 8pm in summer. Two exceptions in 2026: opening from 8am until 23 August, and complete closure on 10 and 11 October.
One day or two
The park is clear: “A full day is needed to visit the ZooParc. We advise you, however, to spread it over two days.” This is not a sales line. A full day lets you see everything, walking a great deal and running a little. Two days let you sit down, watch both shows without having to choose, and let the children linger in front of the otters. That is exactly the shape of a weekend.
A few pieces of advice
Arrive at opening: that is the park’s own advice, and it is also the moment when the animals are at their most active. Consult the day-by-day attendance forecast published on the site. The quietest stretches are January and early February, September and October, November and December. To avoid: weekends and the spring and summer holidays, and the spring public holidays.
Have lunch after 2pm on busy days, the park recommends it itself. Twenty-three catering points, chèques-vacances accepted (the French holiday vouchers). Picnics are forbidden inside: two covered areas are laid out beyond the gates, three hundred places at the main entrance, with microwaves for babies’ meals.
Pushchairs to hire at nine euros a day, wheelchairs at twelve euros with booking. Dogs are admitted to the park but barred from the greenhouses, the dome, the amphitheatres, the cable car and the Heights of China, which amounts to missing the essentials: better to leave yours at home.
One last point, for accuracy. The “fourth most beautiful zoo in the world” ranking, still displayed just about everywhere, comes from TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice and dates from 2018.
Avenue du Blanc, at Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, two entrances, south and north. Thirty-five to forty-five minutes from Cour-Cheverny by way of Contres. A day at Beauval goes down better when the road home takes forty minutes and the table is laid for ten. That is what Le Clos Amarante offers, to two families or to one large one…
Information checked on 3 August 2026 on the official ZooParc de Beauval site. Opening times, prices and the animals present all change: a glance at zoobeauval.com before you set off.
