This is no joke mes amis: The story is definitely TRUE and worth telling…

Three years ago, a French group of animal lovers (called something like the “C.L.I.K.”, or the “Coalition for the Liberation of Imprisoned Kangaroos”, probably not classified by NATO as a terrorist organization, just yet) has set loose some fifteen kangaroos in the South of France!

According to l’Agence France Presse, a state of sheer panic ensued in the otherwise quiet city of Carcassonne, and a major operation was launched to bring the runaway marsupials back in the safe custody of the Aussie theme park.

The lady owner of the escaped animals said there was no need to be (pardon our pun) “too jumpy” about the whole thing, since kangaroos were “by nature not aggressive or nervous”…

But she probably would not have (pardon this other pun) “jumped” too quick to that conclusion, had she encountered this other fearsome breed of French Kangaroos, locally known as the “Rémi Gaillard” type (well, check the video below!)

Rémi Gaillard: Another crazy French Kangaroo on the loose, causing major chaos in the southwestern city of Montpelier!

The video, curiously posted only six months prior to the kangaroos “Great Escape”, has so far been viewed by almost 44 million people (trivia: that’s roughly the same number of jobless people in the OECD countries)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNCodTbRJ4Y

And you thought that Rémi was the inventor of the “Kangaroo-Kick-in-the-Water” technique? 🙂

To be sure, the facility where the 15 kangaroos were “liberated” from does not exactly look like a made-for-kangaroos Alcatraz or Guantanamo Bay (although the animal activists would probably beg to differ on this point.)

In fact, “le Parc Australien” is a pretty nice and fun place that you should definitely consider checking out, in case you find yourself one day touristically trapped in the beautiful city of Carcassonne, and (you too) would wish (like, say, the kangaroos) to escape town, to see beyond its famous medieval walls and fortress.

According to Travel and Leisure, “Just like in real Australia, you can watch kangaroos do what kangaroos do, pan for gold, pet a wallaby, throw a boomerang”, etc.

Judge for yourselves, les amis:

Lazy French people rejoice: Plus besoin de s’envoler vers l’Australie, maintenant c’est l’Australie qui vient chez vous…

(No need anymore to fly to Australia, now Australia comes to you)

Close-up picture of one of the kangaroos running at large and who went “incognito” by cleverly adopting the “local attire and customs”—C’est presque impossible de le distinguer parmis les gens du village (It’s nearly impossible to tell him apart from the village inhabitants.)

The song played in the Rémi Gaillard video is called “Kangorou nomade” (“Nomad Kangaroo”), by French group Nomades & Skaetera.

Its lyrics will be featured in a post upcoming very soon, together with their English translation bien sûr, here on the Transparent French Blog!