COUËRON: His neighbours have cats and dogs, but when 72-year-old Philippe Gillet settles down to watch television there is usually an alligator dozing beside him.
His bungalow in western France is also home to a venomous Gabonese viper, a spitting cobra, a python, alligator turtles that can bite off a finger, tarantulas and scorpions.
When someone unfamiliar enters Gillet’s living room, Gator, a two-metre-long alligator, growls from under a coffee table.
“Calm down,” said Gillet and Gator went back to his snooze near Alli, another dozing alligator.
“When there is a storm he comes to sleep in my bed,” said Gillet. “People think I am mad.”
Videos of such episodes and other everyday tales of his deadly menagerie of 400 animals have made Gillet a social media star. They also promote his Inf’Faune charity which aims to educate people about the animals he is so passionate about.
Gillet lived in Africa for 20 years, working as a hunting guide. He said he would often catch crocodiles there to keep them away from villages.
Back in France, he became a herpetologist – a specialist on reptiles and amphibians. He made his base in Coueron, west of Nantes, with his partner, their children, and the animals.
In the garden is Nilo, a Nile crocodile, who Gillet said was “one of the most dangerous species.” Chickens wandered by scratching for food.
Most of the animals were bought or given to him by people who could no longer care for them. France’s customs department has also sometimes turned to him.
“You cannot just free them,” said Gillet. “With global warming, freed cobras could reproduce and spread. Is that what we are going to leave our kids?”
Financing his passion has become a problem since the Coronavirus epidemic however.
His association could no longer organise fund-raising open days to show off the animals to the public. That used to bring in 100,000 euros a year.
Now his social media videos are the main way he gets the conservation message across.
He chooses a different animal for each video, mixing education and humour “to demystify the legends and preconceptions about wild animals.”
Inf’Faune built up 100,000 YouTube followers in its first four months and now has 200,000. Gillet also has 700,000 TikTok followers. The revenues allow Gillet and the 20 volunteers who help him feed the animals.
But Gillet is still concerned about the future as he ages.
“Alligators can live up to 100 on average and Allia and Gator are about 30. The volunteers will have to take over,” he said.
He is already training the volunteers on looking after the animals and wants to set up a specialised refuge for reptiles far from the suburbs where there would be less need for cages and pens.
With his internet following, Gillet has already raised 15,000 euros for the centre. “There are refuges for dogs and cats, why not for these unloved” species.
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you’ll come across a house half submerged in its rushing waters
sad angle as if casting a weary gaze at its soggy surroundings
Though the house looks like the swept-away victim of some catastrophic flood
it’s actually a replica of an inn in the nearby town of Lavau-sur-Loire
It was unveiled in 2007 as part of the Estuaire Art Exhibition
which invited international artists to create large-scale works inspired by the river and nearby estuary
The house was one of nine pieces of art to crop up in the local environment
The artist who created La maison dans la Loire (the House in the Loire)
the river’s swift current swept it right off its foundation and sent it sailing—then sinking
the artwork was moved 15 miles to its current location by a company that specializes in salvaging wrecks
with the water lapping endlessly at its edges and the breeze blowing through its open windows
A vibrant street away from the typical tourist track
Kawaii meets poisonous at this unique art gallery
Of all the houses that grace this neighborhood
only one is a testament to surreal architecture
This house is a mosaic of tiled artwork sourced from local artists
The building features one of the last remaining free-floating spiral grand staircases in the U.S
Alden Weir purchased this 60-acre estate for $10 and a painting
Students can borrow artwork from this gallery to display in their own residences
An incredible little museum of interior design full of artifacts collected from around the world
“The renewal of the Couëron CTVD operation contract reflects the trust local authorities have in Veolia’s expertise
We were able to present an offer that allows regions to comply with and implement their energy transition policy commitments,” explained Bernard Harambillet
Chief Executive Officer of the Waste Solutions
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from the old industrial heartlands of the north to Marseille on the southern coast
rolling TV-news and breakfast bulletins broadcast dramatic images as elite anti-terrorist squads in black body armour smashed windows and bashed down doors shouting "Police!"
emerging with hand-cuffed suspects with their faces covered
on residential streets from Nantes to Toulouse
Less than three weeks before the first round of the presidential election, France is gripped by one of its biggest crackdowns on suspected radical Islamists in recent memory. Amplified by TV coverage, it has been led by an unrelenting Nicolas Sarkozy
Opposition politicians now openly question whether the timing and TV crews are as much linked to electioneering as anti-terrorist crime prevention
France is still in a state of shock and confusion after Mohamed Merah
a 23-year-old unemployed panelbeater from Toulouse
went on a 10-day killing spree across south-west France
executing three paratroopers and shooting children and a rabbi at the gates of a Jewish school
Following a dramatic 32-hour siege at his flat
Merah died in a hail of police bullets as he leapt from the balcony
But questions remain over how Merah – who claimed inspiration from al-Qaida
on police intelligence files and had been under surveillance – was not picked up earlier and his attacks prevented
Some commentators warn that the new anti-terrorist crackdown
which included the deportation of a handful of preachers
should not be used as a smokescreen to distract from potential failings in the Merah operation
The right-wing Sarkozy had long ago seen his election strategy compared to that of his friend George W Bush's 2004 fight for re-election in the US: styling himself as the only trustworthy protector of the nation in the face of serious threat
the danger was impending financial meltdown
it is closer to Bush's own target: Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism
Sarkozy last week likened the Toulouse killings to France's 9/11
but the national "traumatism" was the same
The justice system will have the last word on the arrests
Preliminary charges have been filed against 13 alleged members of a banned fundamentalist group
An intelligence chief suggested militants were planning a kidnapping
The 10 arrested on Wednesday were suspected of links to Islamist websites and of threatening violence in online forums
But in an election more than ever determined by TV coverage
Sarkozy's opponents queried the "spectacle" of the raids and their timing in the wake of the Toulouse killings
"I'm not questioning all that's being done
I'm simply saying that we should have perhaps done more before," said François Hollande
The government insists the arrests had nothing to do with the elections
but with the security and protection of France
The "Toulouse effect" on the presidential race has so far been limited
he had been heckled so badly on the campaign trail in the Basque country that he took refuge in a bar
over 70% of French people approve his stance at the time of the Toulouse killings
His poll ratings have lifted giving him a narrow lead in the first-round
but Hollande remains ahead in the final 6 May run-off
Yet the shootings have not changed French voters' chief topics of concern: crippling unemployment and the difficulty making ends meet
Crime and terrorism remain low on their list
many French people feel disappointed that the presidential debate isn't addressing their everyday worries
But the extreme-right Front National's Marine Le Pen has used Toulouse to hammer home her rhetoric on fears about Islam
immigration and what she warned were fundamentalists festering on France's notorious suburban high-rise estates (even if the raids were often carried out on smart semi-detached houses)
Sarkozy knows he must court Le Pen's voters
have warned against stigmatising French Muslims – a long-held fear following Sarkozy's recent Front National-inspired election crusade against halal meat
Nous mettons tout en œuvre pour rétablir le service dans les meilleurs délais
At the civic reception for 'Twinning' visitors (from left): Jean Luc Borremans
Mayour of Fleurus in Belgium; young harpist Mollie Carroll from Gorey; Cllr Jim Moore
WITH officials from Wexford's newest twin town of Fleurus
the local authority took advantage of the unusual triple visit to host a civic reception for the visitors at the borough district offices on Spawell Road
The event was hosted by Wexford Mayor Cllr Jim Moore and included Jean Luc Borremans
and follows twinning visits to each of the towns by officials and councillors from Wexford
Cllr George Lawlor said a ceremony conducted during the visit was aimed at cementing Wexford's triangular twinning with Fleurus and Coueron and and furthering ties with the opera town of Lugo
with which Wexford has been twinned since 2003
it was the Wexford Festival which led to the connections between Wexford and the Italian town when Luigi Ferrari
the former Artistic Director of Wexford Festival Opera
brought the organisers of Lugo's annual opera festival to Wexford to see how the operation was run here and the ties have been growing every year since
Cllr Lawlor said it was very rare for three towns to come together - Wexford
Coureon and Fleurus - with a view to securing European funding
and even rarer for representatives from opera loving Lugo to be here at the same time
He said Brexit loomed large in talks between all the civic representatives
with agreement that ties would be further strengthened once the UK leaves the European Union
In an early sign of stronger connections with the Italian town
he said officials in Lugo hope to send a number of young people to the Slaney Language Centre in Wexford early next year to further their use of English
EnniscorthyWexford residents called out for trying to cheat bin system to avoid finesAt the April meeting of the Enniscorthy Municipal District
councillors discussed the lack of improvement in the removal of rubbish and litter
with accusations that residents are trying to cheat the system.