The cirque comes to town.

I have mixed feelings about the French circuses. When we first moved here almost six years ago I was very excited to see the animals grazing on the riverbanks and the tents that they would set up in our Place du Cirque, down by the river. The ones that come to our town are very small operations. Almost all of them have a petting zoo type setup for the children. When I see the care that they give to the animals I am impressed.
I do have a problem with the fact that the animals are caged most of the time when they travel from town to town. This circus that was here last weekend had a mother Bengal Tiger and a cub that was about six months old. The fence that you see in the top photo is where they were caged. The mother was pacing the cage and when the caretaker would come to the cage, she would put her head to the bars of the cage for him to scratch. The cub on the other hand was laying on it's back and the caretaker would reach into the cage and scratch her belly.