Someday I Will Go Inside

Paris ~ October 14, 2008

Galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie Comparée

I love this building at 2 Rue Buffon near the southeast corner of the Jardin des Plantes. I've taken many pictures of the outside, including its very cool dinosaur sculpture and the critters attached to the outside of the building, but the doors have always been locked when I've been there. The inside of this building is the kind of thing I dream about. I can't imagine anyplace better. I should have been a paleontologist.

The early scientists are memorialized along with the animals. The name on the plaque in this photo is A. d'Orbigny. Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigney (1802-1857) traveled in South America and studied it's natural history and geology. He drew the first comprehensive map of the continent and is considered the father of stratigraphical paleontology, having noticed the importance played by the different layers in which fossils are found.

Update: I haven't been posting regularly. I've been feeling worse for a few days, but today I'm feeling better. I'm still topsy-turvey from the parathyroid disease and the surgeries in 2012. I'm beginning to figure out why my recovery may be so slow. Calcium is absolutely vital to the way the body works. It's not just about building strong bones and healthy teeth. It acts as a secondary messaging system for the endocrine system as well as a transmitter for the nervous system. Over the years my whole body had to adjust to higher calcium, then suddenly they threw it a curve-ball, removing the tumors that kept my calcium too high and causing it to go much lower. This looks perfect on paper, but everything has to adjust. Nobody explained the degree to which this could happen. I knew that the nervous system was affected, but I didn't realize until yesterday that calcium is also a transmitter for hormones, including thyroid and others. My thyroid TSH was at a pretty normal level before the first surgery and now it's quite high. I guess it takes a while to come back to normal. Meanwhile, life can be very uncomfortable. I was improving through January, and then February became very stressful and I got severe flu (or something). When I type too much I get inflammations, which is why I haven't been commenting, either. I'm doing better today, and trying to do everything right. Eating gobs of protein and taking lots of calcium helps, along with sleep and rest. I'm still figuring it out myself and with several Facebook groups, as my doctors have all been very uninformed on relevant points.

My Web Page: tapirback.com

One More Photo of a Grand Old Lady

Paris ~ October 16, 2008

This may be one of my last photos in a series paying homage to the landmark building and company that is (or was) La Samaritaine on the bank of the Seine at Pont Neuf. Look at the wonderful detail of the medallions among the gold letters and the way the windows reflect various hues of the sky.

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Woman with Accordion

Paris ~ October 18, 2008

This goofy scene looks like something you would find inside an historic vaudeville show, not out on the street, but after all, it was Montmartre, and it seems all of Montmartre has become a circus. I didn't know that, because the last time I was there, it was gray, empty, and you could see across the square. I'm not saying it wasn't fun, but it wasn't the Montmartre I remember from previous visits. I think about these things a lot as more and more places become less real and more like Disneyland. But things change. When I was first there - finding something I wanted not to change - it wasn't the Montmartre of Picasso's time, either. In those days, Montmartre was a country village.

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Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

Paris ~ May 5, 2004

This is one of my excuses for not taking the staircase to the top.

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Sunset on the Seine

Paris ~ May 2, 2004

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Mural and Wrought Iron: La Samaritaine, Paris

Paris ~ May 4, 2005

Art Nouveau design inside La Samaritaine department store

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Ornate Doors in Paris

Paris ~ May 5, 2004

West Doors of Notre Dame Cathedral

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A Lion on the Door, Basilica of Sacre Coeur

Paris ~ October 18, 2008

A door of the Basilica of Sacre Coeur

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Gryphons on a Stone Shield

St-Denis, France ~ October 15, 2008

St-Denis Basilica

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Reflecting

Paris ~ May 4, 2004

In the Louvre

See more Weekend Reflections.

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Paleontological Lizard

Paris ~ October 14, 2008

Museum of Paleontology

Jardin des Plantes

I've posted one of Mr. Lizard's friends on the same facade here.

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Shining Blue Gem

Paris ~ October 15, 2008

Notre Dame Cathedral, South Ambulatory

I like this photo a lot, but I'm not sure who he is. I love the way the blue jewel catches the light. I've looked in the Blue Gide and the Michelin Green guide, and all I could find is that he could be one of the 18th-19th Century prelates buried there.

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Wide Open under Blue

Paris ~ May 5, 2004

Place du Parvis Notre Dame

. . . with the splendid Notre Dame Cathedral behind us, and the road crossing the Pont au Double to the Left Bank ahead.

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Giant Panda and Thylacine (Tasmanian Wolf) on a Carousel in Paris

Paris ~ October 14, 2008
The Dodo Carousel, Jardin des Plantes

We still have giant pandas in the world, but only about 1,600 to 3,000 of them, which is not many, especially when they are so hard to breed in captivity and they are not breeding well in the wild. We no longer have the fascinating marsupial - a thylacine, Tasmanian wolf, or Tassie tiger. We can thank modern humans in our egocentric stupidity for eradicating this unique animal (considered to be a pest) in the 1930s. Unsubstantiated reports of their possible existence persisted until the 1960s, but the thylacine was offically listed as extinct in 1982; the rule is that extinction is declared 50 years after the last definitively-living animal has died.

Here's Lee studying the sign near the carousel. I thought the artwork and explanations were terrific, allowing this entertaining carousel to educate and enrich those who cared to take a look. I also thought the drawings were quite nice. I've left the bottom photo very large in case you want to click on it and see the text and the drawings. For other animals on the carousel, click on the "dodo carousel" keyword below.

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Another Greeter

Paris ~ October 14, 2008
Outside the Museum of Natural History (Paleontologgy)
in the Jardin des Plantes

Besides the little creatures all over the facade of the museum, there were three greeters standing at the ready. This proto-something-or-other, perhaps from the Eocene, Oligocene, or Miocene, was much friedlier than he appears. You can see the other two greeters here and here.

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Under the Skin

Paris ~ October 15, 2008

Église St-Sulpice

I could not understand why my photos of St-Sulpice on Google Earth were getting hit so often until I realized that this church had featured so prominently in Dan Brown's cult classic, The Da Vinci Code. Although I'd read the book a few years before, I had not remembered the connection when we were there.

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Capricorn near the Altar

St-Denis, France ~ October 15, 2008

St-Denis Basilica

This is the last in my series of zodic animals on the floor near the high altar of St. Denis Basilica near Paris. You can see the others here. A better view of Taurus appears here along with an explanation of how Zodiac signs came to be associated with Christian churches.

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Horses on Parade: Checkerboard Rumps

Invalides, Paris ~ October 19, 2008

It's decorative, but I don't know why they do it. I saw horses at St-Michel in Paris a few years ago with the same pattern. They were also on parade. In the second case, it seemed as though they were escorting some dignitary. On October 19, 2008, they were part of a police exibition with all sorts of interactive events taking place.

Note: It's called quartermarking, and VP found the answer. Check out the comments on his post.

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Extinct Horned Turtle and Atlas Lion on the Dodo Carousel

Paris ~ October 14, 2008

The Dodo Carousel

of Extinct and Endangered Animals,

Jardin des Plantes

I want to focus on two animals today: the Horned Turtle (Meiolania sp.) and the Atlas Lion (Panthera leo leo), also known as the Nubian or Barbary lion. While some animals on the Dodo Carousel became extinct thousands of years ago, the last wild Atlas lion was shot and killed in 1922. This is terribly sad. Extinction was not due to a natural process, but was brought about by our thoughtlessness or uncaring behavior, and could have been prevented. It was later discovered that there were some "possible" descendants of this lion in zoos or circuses, but I believe that to this day the ancestry has not been proven or is mixed. The former range of this lion subspecies was Africa from Morocco to Egypt, and it may have been the heaviest of the lion species, although some experts believe the weights found in literature were exaggerated.

Poignantly, a few living species such as the gorilla and giant panda are also included on this carousel, and we can only hope they don't disappear under our stewardship.

Meiolania horned turtles survived in New Caledonia until about 2,000 years ago.

Click the keyword link below for more images of the Dodo Carousel.

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Art and Architecture

Paris ~ May 4, 2004

St-Germain l'Auxerrois from La Samaritane

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