I saw recently that Schilliger garden centre in Gland have a temporary butterfly house at the moment (running until 1st September) and since Jude was asking me lots of questions about moths yesterday, I thought he might enjoy it.
We were among the first cars in the huge car park and the shop was almost empty so we strolled through the garden centre beforehand. It’s a beautiful place crammed full of curiosities and even Jude, who is a vocal loather of garden centres, enjoyed looking at the displays as we past.
We followed the signs for the Serre aux Papillons to one of the large greenhouses and were immediately impressed by the size of some of the amazing butterflies that came to greet us. It’s a really lovely setting laid out like a small garden with lots of colourful flowers, trees and ornaments for the butterflies to perch on and we took our time to look closely for specimens hiding in plain sight as we followed the path.
Some came quite near to Jude who really enjoyed seeing them fluttering around his head, whereas Alba liked the big blue ones and did lots of gasping and breathless chattering.
The butterfly tent isn’t large so it’s not a long visit but it was a really a lovely, magical experience and gave us plenty to talk about. I had been a bit worried about whether I would manage with the double pushchair and indeed it was a bit tight in places but we managed to pass everywhere. Important to keep a close eye on the children and to be a bit careful where they put their feet as we saw a couple of butterflies on the path here and there.
I believe the goal of the exhibit is to encourage us to create a butterfly friendly garden since their numbers have been on the decline for the last few decades so it’s good to learn about the kinds of things we could plant that might attract more.
When we had finished in the butterfly tent, we went through to the animal area and spent some time looking at the mice, guinea pigs and rabbits. Alba was captivated by a pair of lizards and I decided to wind up the visit when she started fiddling with the latch on the door of their cage 😯 🦎
(As an aside, I read this morning that David Attenborough has lent his support to The Big Butterfly Count to help track butterfly numbers in the UK. It’s an initiative with encourages the public to count the butterflies they see in a 15 minute period and log the results on the website. Worth having a look if you are UK based)
Information
Parking : Yes
Toilets : Yes
Baby Change Facilities : No
Accessibility : Yes suitable for pushchairs