Musée d'histoire Naturelle, Paris

The Jardin des Plantes is bordered by three interesting places. The Menagerie, the vast Grand Galerie de Evolution & the antiquated Musée d'histoire Naturelle. The third contains thousands of excellent skeletal displays but is hotter than a green house in summer. I managed to make some quick sketches before I passed out!

Hidden in the back in dusty old jars I found these freaky specimens!

Cyclops Piglet

Two-faced pigeon

Cyclops Kitten

Double-headed duckling

Back in the autumn of 2005 I first encountered the sculpture of Emmanuel Fremiét at the Henri Rousseau exhibition, Tate Modern. On a subsequent trip to Paris I found another of his powerful animal sculptures outside the Musée D'Orsay. When I moved to the city last summer I figured I could find more examples of his work.

I came across this OrangUtan Attack! in the entrance hall of the Musée d'histoire Naturelle.

Then I found this one close by in the Jardin des Plantes.

In the basement of the Grand Galerie de Evolution there was a special exhibition on dragons. It was disappointing. This guy was the most interesting exhibit.

Le cimetière animalier d'Asnières

In his book on Paris Miroslav Sasek tells of a cemetary for DOGS! Having never seen a pet cemetary before I was impressed by how much care & attention the French lavish on their pets even after death!
Most of the graves have a photo of the deceased on the tombstones & sometimes sculpted tributes to the cherished pooch. Often the name doesn't seem to quite match the photo! My favourite is Ulysees the poodle pup!

Fur Box

On the Rue de Rosiers where I lived in Paris last year there was a groovy little second hand clothes shop that we'd sometimes peruse. I found a neat corduroy jacket while Raja tried on the furs. To me it looked like a box of roadkill but she somehow managed to look chic!