Confession: I used to work in a zoo in high school. I would say I was their best employee, but the rest of the employees might disagree. The important part is that I worked at the zoo and spent early mornings opening the gift shop and listening to the animals wake up for breakfast. What were my favorite animals? It were the Francois langur monkeys, who carried on each morning as if their sole job was to wake the rest of the animals from their slumber to announce a new day had started.
This experience left me with a fondness of primates. One cannot hear of a monkey mountain and NOT visit. It is not a mountain made of monkeys as the name might suggest , but rather a mountain dedicated to the care and habitation of the Barbary macaque specie. The park of Mountain of Monkeys La Montagne des Singes itself is easy to get to and has lots of free parking. Upon entering, there are a few playgrounds where children can pretend they are monkeys themselves.
After purchasing tickets, we followed a path to the entrance gate where an employee explained the rules of the park in English, German or French. Also visitors are told not to put the popcorn in their pockets, because the monkeys will go in after it. There was also some talk of the minimal risk of monkeys taking your personal belongings.
The guide continued to talk, but by that point I was busy imagining myself swarmed by hungry monkeys tearing at my clothes and pulling my hair.
Inside the park a kindly employee handed us a small handful of popcorn and mutters something about not feeding babies or holding food close to your body. I handed all of my popcorn to my husband. Better one of us be able to drive home or to the hospital I figured. But to my delight the visitors were like old hats to the monkeys. They sat perched on the timbers lining the pedestrian path and affably waited for a stranger with a literal handout.
