Alligator Greenhouse (Serre aux alligators), Alligator Bay

The park grew out of the collection of a reptile-keeping enthusiast, Jean-Pierre Macé. In 1990 he showed his reptiles in a temporary exhibition in a small house near Mont-Saint-Michel. Its success led to a permanent exhibition, opened on 14 July 1994 in larger premises as the Reptilarium du Mont-Saint-Michel. By 1996 it covered 700 m² and showed some 200 reptiles; in 1998 it added a 6,000 m² landscaped garden for tortoises and turtles, the Ferme des tortues.

The Alligator Greenhouse was the next step. Built at the end of 2005, inaugurated on 2 June 2006 and opened to the public on 1 July that year, it devotes 2,500 m² to crocodiles, alligators and caimans. The park then took the name Alligator Bay and reached about one hectare; from the start it displayed the largest group of American alligators in Europe.

The first albino alligators arrived in 2012: two females and a male from Louisiana, bought in Spain the year before. One of the females moved in 2014 to the Planète des crocodiles at Civaux. In 2021, because the visit is largely indoors, its post-lockdown reopening was pushed back to 9 June, later than other zoos. In 2023 the park added an exhibition on the legend of dragons.

The area devoted to the greenhouse covers 2,500 m², given over entirely to crocodilians; it was built at the end of 2005 and opened in the summer of 2006. The sources consulted describe neither its frame nor the type of glazing; they focus mainly on the interior layout.

The temperature is kept at 28 °C all year to meet the reptiles' needs. The setting takes visitors from a Louisiana forest to an African oasis, past waterfalls, huts, suspended pontoons and uncertain paths. The route follows wooden walkways, and an observation tunnel completes the layout.

Across the park, upkeep also relies on underground, airborne and ground-dwelling microfauna that break down droppings, dead leaves and food remains.

The greenhouse holds what the park describes as the largest group of alligators in Europe. It houses American alligators, three of them albino, together with broad-snouted and yacare caimans, and Cuban, Nile and Siamese crocodiles. Two turtle species share the space: the alligator snapping turtle and the pig-nosed turtle.

The albino alligators, which arrived in 2012, were brought in for breeding; their arrival was presented at the time as a first in Europe. Several feeding sessions punctuate each opening day, including those of the alligators and crocodiles. The rest of the park, which announces more than 800 reptiles of over 100 species, shows tortoises, lizards and snakes in the Ferme des tortues and the Labyrinthe des dragons.

Alligator Bay lies in Beauvoir, beside the road leading to Mont-Saint-Michel, so it combines easily with a visit to the Mount. The Alligator Greenhouse is the main stop on a route that also takes in the tortoise farm, the dragon maze and a dinosaur plain. It is worth timing the visit to coincide with one of the crocodilian feeding sessions announced each opening day. The park is accessible to visitors with reduced mobility, except for the observation tunnels and the play area.