GB: Paris Day Four: Death March 2: The Re-Deathening: Photo Set 3

The first floor of the paleontology museum is wall to wall skeletons. This area seemed less about teaching you things and more about "Hey if we lose all the signs and educational information we can squeeze two more horse skeletons in here!" It was cool and creepy at the same time. Note the photo of the cabinets filled with different animals' brains. They had dozens more of these cabinets filled with different organs or sometimes animals in jars with their guts exposed. I only took a picture of the brains cabinet because things got pretty weird pretty quickly.

The back half of the room was all whale skeletons. A few more whale pics will follow this email.

GB: Paris Day Four: Death March 2: The Re-Deathening: Photo Set 2

Two cool statue pics attached here. The first one is in the garden next to where a field trip of little kids were eating lunch. It's a bear fighting a man. Note the bear cub that the man has presumably killed and the knife the man has presumably plunged into the bear.

There was a cool statue of a stegosaurus outside the paleontology museum, but I don't know why they didn't trim the ferns a little more so you could see its head. AS apes steggy with her hat.

Speaking of apes, I don't think anything at the Louvre is going to bump this last sculpture out of my favorite art slot. This is literally the first thing you see when you walk into the paleontology museum.

I'm not sure what the title of this piece is, but I'm hoping it's either "Mother Orangutan with Child (Strangling Human)" or "It was Earth!"

GB: Paris Day Four: Death March 2: The Re-Deathening: Photo Set 1

Bonjour from Paris, where I have changed into sweatpants and will not be putting on tennis shoes again until tomorrow.

We embarked on another five hour long death march around Paris today to see the natural history museum and Musee de Rodin. Thankfully, we evened out any healthiness of exercise by finishing off our fancy desserts from yesterday. (No photos, only shame.)

The natural history museum is located in a sprawling garden along with a "zoo," rose garden, paleontology museum, and botanic conservatory. We actually didn't go to the natural history part or the zoo. The zoo only had a dozen or so animals, most of which you could see by walking around the park and peaking through fences.

The roses weren't covered with tissue today and there were several cool looking rocks scattered through the garden, as you can see in one of the photos below.

There were several tree lined paths like this one that provided well needed shade in the garden.

There was also a Phipps-like conservatory in the garden that had a few large rooms with plants in them.

GB: Paris Day Three: I'm Allergic to Something: Photo Set 9

After Notre Dame, we walked to a famed ice cream place nearby called Berthillon. It was there we learned that some fancy ice cream stores, like museums, are apparently closed on Tuesdays. Luckily there was a little cafe a few doors down that served Berthillon ice cream. AS and I each had double scoop cones. She got strawberry and chocolate nougat, and I got two scoops of chocolate noir. (I won.)

The street had several cool shops including one that had these two dancing poodles in the window. I have no doubt AS would've bought it, but unfortunately the place must have either been a museum or an ice cream shop, because it was closed. A few doors down however was a cool shop with little glass figurines and we got her a tiny glass moose there to soften the blow.

On our walk home, we stopped at a bakery near the apartment and got three chocolate treats. I realize now that we forgot to take pictures of them, but I assure you they were fancy and delicious. We only ate a few bites of each, as I could feel myself getting closer to diabetes, so we're saving the rest for tomorrow. Maybe I'll remember to take a picture then, but I wouldn't wager much on that.

For dinner tonight, I had some kind of baguette/panini sandwich. We've been seeing people walking all over town with them and eating them in parks, so I was intrigued. We didn't have dinner plans, so when we walked by a little storefront that had some good looking ones I indulged. It was delicious. It was a good sandwich. My French still isn't good enough to understand what the bag says, but man that sandwich was one of the best sandwiches I've had in a while.

On our walk home from the sandwich shop, we saw this cool piece of art that looks like the sidewalk is exploding. There's a little fountain underneath it.

Tomorrow the museums will be open, so we're going to head to the natural history museum. Lunch TBD and then maybe something in the afternoon. I'd like to check out the catacombs, but I'm not sure if that will happen tomorrow. For all I know, gelato shops and catacombs are closed on Wednesdays or something.

GB: Paris Day Three: I'm Allergic to Something: Photo Set 8

Two different exterior shots of Notre Dame.

The stonework on the outside was very cool and intricate. This photo is of the carving over the main entrance. Sasha used her art history knowledge to explain to me that it's Jesus (the lord-y looking one in the middle) deciding who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. You can see the devil (the horned scaly figure) carting off the suckers.

If I learned one thing at Notre Dame it would have be to not ever use the public toilets there again. There are Starbucks here too and it's well worth it to find one sometimes.

GB: Paris Day Three: I'm Allergic to Something: Photo Set 7

The stained glass inside was beautiful. You can also see the organ pipes in one of the shots.

From the outside, the stained glass windows just look like dull gray glass. They also have fencing around each window outside to prevent heathens from breaking them presumably.

GB: Paris Day Three: I'm Allergic to Something: Photo Set 6

Two more gargoyle shots then we went in.

Note the stained glass reflecting on the stone pillars.