The Natural History Museum

May 15, 2019 — Day 6 (Wednesday)

Ed put a laundry in early and set it for only an hour, short for a French laundry. We managed to get their rickety drying rack upright and hung the clothes . . . a real challenge.

We took the bottle of 30 vol. hydrogen peroxide back to the pharmacy and the gentleman in charge cheerfully agreed to exchange it even without the receipt. The only catch was they didn’t have the 10 vol. we wanted so we needed to return at four o’clock when deliveries arrived. No problem!

Then we set off for the Jardin des Plantes to find the Natural History Museum. We passed all the museums on the way and finally came to the Galerie d’Anatomie Comparée et de Paléontologie-Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle at the park entrance. We paused on the way to watch a tv interview being filmed in the garden. We paid and entered the museum that was full of skeletons including all kinds of dinosaurs and many other birds, fish and mammals including many that are now extinct. There are over 1,000 animal skeletons packed wall to wall in the massive gallery. The remains of each beast are faced in the same direction creating the illusion of a skeleton stampede as visitors enter the space. There were also preserved brains and body parts but those weren’t as exciting. The whole place was absolutely fascinating. The next floor contains the paleontology section which is a time line of the history of life on earth. Above that on the mezzanine are invertebrates and plant fossils. There are also wall murals of the Lascaux cave paintings on the mezzanine level that can be seen from most of the building. Click here for the Natural History Museum web site

We exited looking for a restaurant and ended up walking all the way back to Place Saint-Medard where we got confit de canard at Cave Bourgogne. We’re turning into regulars and I discovered they have fondant au chocolate. Whee!

Walked home and changed my shoes and then walked to Monoprix to get a French electric toothbrush since my American one refuses to recharge here. Took our new toothbrush home and plugged it in. Success. I took a short nap and we headed back to the pharmacy to get our exchange. The man from this morning wasn’t there and we couldn’t explain what had happened to two young clerks or more likely, they didn't believe us. As the young sales clerk had me typing our explanation into her Google Translate, the man from this morning arrived. Saved! We soon had the correct hydrogen peroxide and a five euro refund and were all happy.

We walked on to the marvelous Androuet cheese shop on rue Mouffetard and got a Compte, this time more aged than the last one. The young man who works there is a cheese expert and very nice. Then we visited the vegetable and fruit stand and bought a huge comice pear, and finally to the boulanger for our demi-baguette. Done shopping, we walked home and had another French picnic to end our day. Living this close to the rue Mouffetard market is definitely a good thing.