On Thursday, I offered to take the kids to the paleontology gallery of the natural history museum. (The natural history museum here is marvelous, but Eva was really only interested in the dinosaurs. They have separate buildings for paleontology and minerology.)
Apparently, last week was a school vacation, and everyone must have had the same idea. We had to wait in line for an hour and a half just to get into the building! Normally when we go to the Jardin des Plantes, we hardly even see any other people.
Max and Lucas wandered the gardens and took pictures while I waited in line with Eva. By the time we got in to the register, the museum was going to be closing in 45 minutes, so they didn't charge us admission (a bright spot in the day).
I love the attention to detail in these old museums. Even the stairs are interesting!
Eva was terribly excited that they had skeletons of dinosaurs we had never heard of, which is really something considering the number of dinosaur books we have read.
The boys and I were fascinated by the work in progress. They taped off a little section of the floor so they could continue assembly of a new skeleton.
Lucas photographing a creature "who forgot to brush his teeth."
One floor is devoted to Darwin's comparative anatomy. This is the true gallery of horrors section, containing creepiness in many forms, including a giant wall of jarred specimens in formaldehyde. (I tried to quickly steer Eva past the worst of it.)
The looks on their faces says so much. (Although Lucas is photographing whatever inspired those expressions of disgusted fascination.)
Of course I loved all of these old, hand-lettered signs. This one cracked me up, as it ends in a question mark. Apparently they're not quite sure what it is -- it might be a two-horned rhinoceros head -- but they just thought it was cool anyway?
Hard to believe, but this was the least creepy of the jarred specimens. Take my word for it. If you even knew, you'd thank me for my discretion.
It was an appropriate outing so close to Halloween...
