A reptile zoo called Padiparc has opened behind the Gouffre de Padirac in the Lot department of southwestern France, founded by Raphaël Da Fonseca, a man who spent much of his childhood terrified of snakes. The park, built with his wife Mylène, now displays around 60 species of reptiles, amphibians and arachnids.
The Gouffre de Padirac is a large natural chasm and one of the best known tourist attractions in the Lot, drawing visitors who sometimes wander into Padiparc by mistake. At the reception desk, Mylène Da Fonseca regularly redirects families looking for the cave entrance across the way, joking afterward that she had planned to scold the next confused visitor, only for the family to turn out to be a large group.
A childhood bite that deepened a fear
Raphaël was bitten by a grass snake at the age of five, an incident that hardened a fear he says was already deeply rooted. He said he could not even look at a drawing of a snake, having heard so many frightening stories that he became phobic.
The turning point came later, during a family holiday in Portugal. From a bridge, he spotted two grass snakes chasing tadpoles in a river below. Curiosity won out over fear. He said he climbed down and approached them without startling them, sliding his hands underneath, and that they let him do it. At that moment, he said, he realised the stories he had been told were not true at all.
By the age of nine, he had come to understand that fear is often rooted in ignorance. His parents allowed him to raise his first grass snakes, asking only that he look after them properly, and within a year he already had them breeding. He went on to read every specialist book he could find, exchange knowledge with other enthusiasts, and build up an expertise over the years that would eventually become his career.
A park built by hand as a couple
The passion eventually took over the couple's home. Mylène said snakes were never really her thing, but that she was never afraid of them either, and that what struck her most was discovering someone who lived entirely for his animals. What began as a few terrariums in their apartment grew into an entire room of their house.
After 15 years working as an animal keeper in the Lot, Raphaël decided to open his own park. The couple bought an old building behind the Gouffre de Padirac and spent a year rebuilding it, keeping only the walls and redoing everything else themselves, including the electricity, plumbing, masonry and terrariums. Looking back, he said, they must have been completely reckless to take it on. Padiparc opened in 2020.
While Raphaël worked on the building site, Mylène finished her shifts at a nursing home before joining him to keep working into the evening. She said it was fortunate they did not have a baby at home during that time.
"Here, we take the time to explain"
Each morning, Raphaël meets visitors by the tortoise enclosure for a scheduled talk whose length he never fixes in advance, saying it can last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how many questions the public asks. Nothing is recited from a script, he said, and he adapts to whichever audience is in front of him.
Afternoons are given over to the snakes and lizards. Raphaël takes an animal from its terrarium, feeds it in front of visitors and works through common misconceptions one by one. He said reptiles are among the most demonised animals, and that the park's role is to show they have their rightful place in nature.
Throughout the year, Padiparc also runs "keeper for a day" sessions, in which participants spend several hours preparing meals, feeding the animals and seeing behind the scenes of the park. Raphaël limits each session to two people so that everyone has a full experience, and parents are later given photos and videos of their children so they have real memories to keep.
In winter, the couple also trains municipal police officers and firefighters in how to safely capture reptiles, a form of outreach they see as a natural extension of their passion.
A monitor lizard that became a global story
One of the park's most famous residents is a young Malaysian water monitor that has drawn attention well beyond the Lot. The animal was born through parthenogenesis, a rare form of reproduction that occurs without fertilisation. Raphaël said the park recorded three such births, a phenomenon confirmed through genetic analysis carried out with a veterinary student in collaboration with the Natural History Museum of Lausanne in Switzerland. The story spread around the world, becoming a source of pride for the small family-run park. The monitor, named Star is Born, hatched in 2022 in what researchers said had never previously been observed in the species.
At the end of each day, Raphaël sees off the last visitors, most of whom he says leave with a different view of animals that have long been misunderstood. He said that if a child leaves Padiparc having understood that a snake is not a monster but an animal essential to biodiversity, then the park has succeeded.
