Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Oct 14, Part 15 - Near the Zoo in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris

Well, we were here, finally! This is the zoo. But it was a few minutes past closing time, and of course, we couldn't go in. I took a picture of the sign, because - well, the zoo at the Jardin des Plantes is historic and famous, and I'd read about it so many times. And it's a nice place. I had also visited before, but it would have been fun to go again. However, since it hadn't been our main destination for the day, we chalked it up as a fairly minor disappointment and continued to explore. I thought the sign was striking in its simplicity, nestled here among the evergreens.

Obviously - the history of the zoo in French.

This building is right near the entrance to the zoo. It's the Galleries of Comparative Anatomy. I don't know if it's that old or what the history is. Below is a view of the main door.


This is the only picture I got of an actual animal at the zoo - a black swan. It's out of focus. We were still moving along pretty fast. I knew we had a lot to see and not much time left to see it in the light. I thought it was sort of funny that this swan was black, and that a white swan on a black background had figured prominently a day and a half ago (or whatever, accounting for the time difference; it seemed like another world already).

This was one of the first formal gardens we came to. I'm not sure if it's part of the Alpine Garden or not. We didn't go in. That's the mantra for awhile. There was still a lot to see.

One of the larger walkways was named after Cuvier.

I love the orange shirt and red hair contrasted with the greenhouse.

Here's an entrance to the Alpine Garden. Once more, we didn't go in. You could spend a long time enjoying these wonderful gardens.

I took this photo just past the greenhouse, but I can't quite place it on Google Earth. I don't find a building where this had to have been taken. I wish I could hop a plane and go check it out - and maybe stay for a few weeks - or months! I like the windows and I like the plant-form signs they had in the garden. We're nearly to the Natural History Museum now. It's part of this incredible and incredibly historic complex that's called the Jardin des Plantes. . . .


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