Greenhouses of Planet Exotica (formerly Parc des Jardins du Monde)

Planet Exotica began life as the Parc des Jardins du Monde, a project led by the town of Royan on the initiative of its mayor, Philippe Most. The park opened in summer 2002 on 7.6 hectares of the urban Pousseau marsh. It drew 100,000 visitors at its opening; attendance had fallen to 80,000 by 2010.

In 2012 the running of the site was entrusted to the company Flore Sciences Nature under a twenty-five-year agreement signed on 26 March. The park, now called Planet Exotica, combines themed gardens with animal displays, reptiles above all: the French Wikipedia mentions some 250 species, along with a research laboratory and a breeding centre.

The sources consulted do not give a separate construction date for the greenhouses, nor do they name a designer. The English Wikipedia also describes an orchid house and a butterfly conservatory that the official page on the park's plants and gardens does not mention.

Planet Exotica's greenhouses are separate climate zones within the park. The largest, the tropical house, covers more than 800 m² and is kept hot and humid; terrariums are built into it to show tropical reptiles from several continents. The desert house recreates a dry climate instead, with its own terrariums for reptiles of arid habitats and, according to the French Wikipedia, for invertebrates, arachnids and scorpions.

The English Wikipedia also credits the park with a 700 m² orchid house, described as the largest in France with about 3,000 plants, and a 400 m² bonsai area. The sources consulted describe neither the structure nor the materials of the buildings.

The tropical house is planted with banana plants, palms, orchids in many colours, bromeliads, passion flowers, tillandsias and carnivorous plants. The desert house gathers agaves, succulents and cacti from around the world, some of them in flower. In both houses reptiles are an integral part of the route, each habitat presenting species suited to its climate.

Outdoors, the park adds a Japanese garden where some bonsai are more than a hundred years old, a Mediterranean garden of aromatic herbs around an olive tree brought from Spain, about 1,800 years old, 4 m high and 7 m in girth, a bamboo maze and an English garden.

Planet Exotica stands at 5 avenue des Fleurs-de-la-Paix in Royan, on the edge of the Pousseau marsh, and has its own car park. The two greenhouses punctuate a route that mixes themed gardens and animals, so they are seen as part of a tour of the whole park.

The visit continues with the Japanese garden and its bonsai, the Mediterranean garden with its centuries-old olive tree, the bamboo maze wrapped in artificial mist, and pedal-boat trips on the waters of the marsh.