I want to but a carte orange tomorrow morning. Can the metro take me out to the zoo, and if so, what zone would I have to buy for ? Thanks very much. My wife and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary in Paris, renting an apartment 1 block off the Champs & loving Paris !!!

Kevin

The zoo is at Vincennes - the C.O. for zones 1-2 is sufficient.

http://www.paris-tourisme.com/places/zoo/index.html

Help such as this reply and many others has made our trip to Paris so much easier - I cannot thank everyone enough. Truly generous souls here at fodors.

Kevin

Most of the animals are gone from the zoo -- it is about to close for a 5-year or so renovation which has not even been budgeted yet.

You might prefer the small zoo at the Jardin des Plantes at metro Austerlitz.

NB

Where did the animals go? We thought the Paris zoo was an interesting place, the animals seemed to be more active than at many other zoos, and the polar bear pool could be downright scary...they had the habit of leaping straight up into the air and coming up just a few feet from the visitors (for those that have never been there, the animals aren't separated from people by cages but by moats and other means). Some of our absolute best animal photos were taken at the Paris zoo...no bars between us and the animals.

I guess zoo and park keepers around Europe will have to brush up on their French:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/ne...00/4197799.stm

In any case, the lions, tigers, leopards, rhinos and polar bears were already removed from the zoo in 2004. Checking for recent news, I read that about half of the cages at the zoo are empty. The zoo is still waiting for a financial solution for the renovation. When it opened in 1934, it was the most modern zoo in the world and the first to try to present animals in a semblance of natural surroundings. It has been going downhill for a long time.