A baby is offered a lifetime pass to this zoo in France for his unusual first name.
It’s an urban legend that lives hard: babies born on a plane or on a train in France have the chance to enjoy public transport for free for the rest of their lives. In fact, it is up to the company to decide whether it offers this type of gift. Other French people have similar privileges: a baby born in Puy du Fou in the summer of 2022 has a “eternal pass” for the famous Vendée park.
A French person has another type of privilege: a lifetime pass to a French zoo! And this time, it’s not because he was born within the park. On November 14, 2023, Marine and Aubry Coutant-Georget, a couple from Scaër in Finistère, welcomed their first child after seven years of hope, including three years of a difficult PMA journey. During the pregnancy, the future parents could not agree on the baby’s first name, a boy, until a truck crossed their path.
“We were coming out of an ultrasound in Lorient and, in a roundabout, we passed a Les Terres de Nataé vehicle. I said ‘that first name is great’ and we validated it straight away,” said the father, Aubry Coutant-Georget, in an interview with Télégramme. But this crush on the first name Nataé was not so trivial, because this first name also made them think of the word “natality”. In fact, before learning the news of the pregnancy, the couple was preparing to “send the mail for the adoption file”.
Nataé’s parents, nature lovers, were inspired by Terres de Nataé, an animal park located in Pont-Scorff, in Morbihan in the Brittany region. Ironically, named Nataé after the goddess of nature, the baby is the only child in France to be named that. “According to our research, there are no other Nataé in France, only one in Quebec,” mother Marine Coutant-Georget explained to Télégramme.
“We were surprised, but delighted to discover the first name Nataë, which is moreover unique in France,” the animal park team then announced. The president and founder of the zoo, Sébastien Musset, who had learned the news from an employee, contacted the happy parents and decided to offer an annual pass for life for the baby. A very special and generous birth gift that Nataé will not soon forget. As soon as he is old enough to walk, little Nataé will be able to come and wander as he pleases in “his” park!
