On our second-to-last day in Paris, I took the kids to the Jardin des Plantes. The whole complex actually encompasses a zoo, a minerology museum, a paleontology museum, and vast gardens as well, but we just walked through the gardens and hit the natural history museum.
This dragon is entirely made out of recycled materials such as cans and plastic bottles. We were all transfixed by it.
This view is so typical of parks in Paris. They have a special vehicle that trims the trees uniformly while it drives by. This is one of the views that I miss most.
The natural history museum is enormous and fabulous. We were there for at least two hours and still didn't have time to get to one of the four floors. (My indoor photos didn't turn out very well, as usual, and all the ones of the kids are terrible.) This is called the Grand Gallery of Evolution. This photo doesn't do it justice, as it is hard to capture the scale. We had to drag Eva away from this part of the museum.
I love these transparent displays!
I will miss the fact that museums in Paris are so beautiful structurally as well. And of course I will miss seeing beautiful ironwork everywhere we go!
It was a perfect day in every way. The weather was gorgeous (but not too hot!), we all had a great time, and then Eva had a nap in her stroller while we hit McDo's:
I find it interesting that, while most McDonald's in America are exactly the same, the ones in Paris vary widely. There are some with very interesting design, and the one on the Champs-Elysees is positively fancy! Right now they have a sandwich on the menu called le P'tit Moutarde, which is a hamburger on a French roll with grainy mustard. France!
but apparently SpongeBob is universal...
