A. Château de Thoiry
Castles and parks to visit

From  December 13, Saint Lucie's Day to Epiphany, every year, near

Paris,  at Thoiry Château, an extraordinary esoteric Renaissance

monument ,  the Sun sets in the castle's central arch, the Grand

Vestibule and the axis of the southwest parterre of the formal

gardens.  (as viewed from the northeast  facade).

December 21st, the exact day of the Solstice, is the optimum moment to

see and photograph this remarkable phenomenon,  designed using the

Golden Mean , by the great "initiated" architect  Philibert de L'Orme

en 1561. 

Thoiry, constructed to be a transparent bridge of light, a solar

calendar on landscape scale, is the incarnation of

Occidental equivalent of "Feng Shui" , the ancient secrets of an

initiated elite dedicated to the capture of the cosmic and telluric

forces  to create  a harmonious ambiance propitious to well-being,

happiness and success.

THE ZOO

Having taken the risk of investing an important part of the family fortune in his Wildlife project, The Viscount de La Panouse then had to face the hostility of influential established zoologists convinced that his concept was impossible to execute. Open to the public in May 1968, Thoiry's Wildlife Park fulfilled an extraordinary ambition based on a revolutionary idea. Thoiry's visitors, behind closed windows, in the safety of their automobiles, could drive through the animals' territory. Civilized man was caged, a prisoner of a heap of metal, while the wild animals roamed nonchalantly free. At Thoiry, the total concept of a zoo was rethought, and has since widely influenced new creations. The Viscount has himself created the Wildlife Parks of Sigean and of Peaugres in France and has been consulted by numerous foreign governments., He has, also, with his American wife, Annabelle, opened a new theme park in the 900 year old family estate, the Château du Colombier Eden Medieval with a medieval Bestiary, near Rodez, France, in the Aveyron.

In his ambition to recreate a 20th century Noah's Ark, this creator of wildlife parks seems to want to remind us that Man, exiled from Eden's earthly paradise, was also the cause of the exclusion of his fellow animals, a responsability that imposes a debt towards these innocent creatures, prisoners of the instant. Thus, Thoiry was conceived to seal a new alliance between Men and the Animals, to celebrate the ecological virtues and to create a living image of terrestial Paradise for the animals, their brothers in misfortune. Perhaps for this reason, when we look an animal in the eyes, we often have the feeling that a man is hidden inside and laughing at us.