Laboratoire Arago

Yesterday we went to the aquarium in Banyuls sur Mer. It is part of the Labatoirre Arago and run by the Universite de Paris. The tickets cost 8.80 Euros and it was worth it.









The jelly fish, les meduses, were see-through and we think if you saw them eating, you could see their food getting digested. They looked blue because the walls of the tank were blue, but they're really the color of glass.












The sea spider had eight legs just like a spider, but with a hard shell and we think it was missing a leg (you can see the holeon the left!) It shared a tank with a brown scorpion fish, probably because the scorpion fish couldn't hurt the sea spider with it's tough shell.









The octopus, la poulpe, was red with bumpy white dots. It swam sideways using it's arms, or tentacles. The eyes were on top of it's head looking to the side.










As we were walking out, the director of the aquarium stopped us and told us we could touch the sea animals in the tank with our hands! There were starfish, les asterides, sea cucumbers (concombres de mer), small fish, and sponges (spongaires). When we touched them, they moved in our hands. The starfish was hard and bumpy. The sponges were squishy and the salt water was cold and stung my hand.







Karl gripping his Langenscheidt French dictionary and pointing out some groupers and loups de mer in the tank. Johann posing for the camera, notebook in hand.