Recap of Paris, Le Fin!

This is the last in my recaps of my trip to Paris. To pick up where I left off, on Saturday night my professor invited us to his abode and we had a local aperitif with pate and then made our way across the Seine to a wonderful restaurant right across from Notre Dame. He and his wife were very generous and wonderful to K. and me--he really has changed my scholarly life. I think K. and I are going to have him over for dinner when we all return to the States this fall.

But back to my recap! On Sunday, K. decided that we should go to Le Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (That National Museum of Natural History). It was one of the strangest experiences I've had this summer. We walked through the gardens, which were beautiful and very orderly -- much different than the planned chaos of the Chelsea Physic Garden. At the front of the museum, we were greeted by a dragon made from recycled cans and plastic (click on the photo to embiggen). It was really cool, not to mention an awesome use of the plastic bags (flames!) that fly about.

The real treat of the day, however, was the paleontology exhibit. We walked up the stairs into a turn of the century iron building (of which there are many throughout England and France). Once we looked in the door, I almost gasped: the room is filled to the brim with skeletons. There's really not a good descriptive phrase I can come up with to give you an idea of the shock I felt seeing so many angled-white bones, seemingly floating about. Along the walls of the room were more skeletons as well as many jars of various body parts, dead things, and Victorian oddities (like a one-eyed cat). Each of these had a carefully written sign that looked as if someone wrote it for the original exhibit and hadn't changed it since. It was a strange, and eye-opening experience -- I think I came away with a much better understanding of the Victorian obsession with science and death. There were three floors of specimens to go through. The above photo gives some idea of the first floor's interior (picture just as many skeletons on the other side of the first floor as well. To view some of the more gruesome pictures in the set, click on the 'photo' links to the right.