Bones, monsters, animals and bikes

Yesterday we took a stroll (not a rushed walk like usual) down the Seine....which was a welcomed change. We left pretty early, so we had the walkway to ourselves except for the occasional runner.

Took a break and took a pic.

Our stroll ended us up here- the Jardin des Plantes. The park opens up to a gorgeous garden of flowers in front of the Museum of Natural History.

On each side of this flower garden, are gorgeous walkways with trees on either side of you, with their branches growing into eachother above you. It was one of my favorite moments.

Instead of going to the Natural History Museum, we chose to see the Galleries of Paleontology and Anatomy. So cool! I really really liked this place. I think I even told Steve I wanted to forget law and go back to biology for a while!

Instead of a pure "dinosaur" museum, it really is a "bone" museum, of skeletons for every type of animal you can think of from frogs, manta rays, horses, buffalo... so awesome. All of the animals are in the middle.

And, then around the museum is the "anatomy" part which reminded me so much of my college days... ears, brains, limbs... (animals of course)... and then the gruesome stuff. There were many animals preserved in formaldehyde. Not so pretty but still really interesting if you're into that stuff!

The whale skeletons were CRAZY big. Whales are one of my favorite animals, so I really enjoyed this exhibit.

They devoted a section to "monsters," or animals that were born with genetic defects (cats with 10 legs), these twin monkeys... very interesting (or freaky!).

A view of the whales from above... I thought the whale on the left hand side was so AWESOME! They were able to preserve the front baleen plate (where the zooplankton is sifted through the water in it's enormous mouth).

Now, onto the dinosaurs.

Steve thought he could take one of these down. Hmm. Wouldn't bet on that one.

After the museum, we strolled on down the walkway to lunch. On the right hand side, they had a display with gorgeous pictures of various expeditions the museum had taken in Madagascar.

Loved the pictures of these crabs...

We then stopped in for some lunch at the "whale" restaurant.

This place was surprisingly upscale (and we ended up spending way more than we had planned!), but the food was delicious and it was fun to see all the grandparents taking out their grandchildren for the day.

Then off to the "Managerie" or Zoo!

The french flamingos looked like the american flamingos!

Gorgeous.

And I thought Steve had funny feet!

The gorilla/monkey exhibit was the most popular in the park. It's funny, because we recently went to the Santa Barbara Zoo, and their gorilla/monkey exhibit was the most popular too! I guess all of us are attracted to the animals that most remind us of ourselves? This guy was beautiful.

I can't remember what this little guy is-- but I know he is a type of panda. One of our favorites.

Out of the zoo, and onto the benches to relax for a while while Dad took a nap!

Some good Parisian relaxation.

I will be making a Carousel poster of all the Carousel's we've been on in Paris!

Sad to say, but this was our first night out in Paris! Ah! Can you believe it? (It's hard to do it with kids)

We finally got the "free" bikes to work, and pedaled our way around. It was breathtaking.

Steve says "My favorite moment thus far."

We biked down to the Arc de Triumph, but couldn't hike to the top because we just missed the last ticket sales... so glad we're here for a month!

But, we did go back to the rides by the Louvre, and rode this baby I've been dying to ride!

This thing is really really high. (10 stories?) I was kind of scared actually, especially when Steve casually mentioned "Did you hear about that ride last month where one of the chains broke on the seats and 5 people died?" What? Why are you telling me this now? And- maybe you should have eaten 1 less ice cream today!!!

Today, I didn't take any pictures aside from some of the kids at the park. Steve left to Germany until tomorrow night, so it is just a little harder to do things without those two extra hands and manpower.

We took the metro to Parc Monceau (A pretty relaxing and low key park), and then trekked it over to Galleries Lafayette (a gargantuan mall taking up 5 city blocks... all 8 stories or more each). I've never been to this mall, and always wanted to go. But, now I can say, just don't go with kids. And, go with a lot of cash. Because, this place is very very expensive.