"Dem Bones...."

"Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones..." This was the theme of the day, and the song playing in my mind repeatedly as I discovered the Musée de Histoire Naturelle (Galeries Paléontology et Anatomy) this afternoon. Accompanied by my darling Madame V, and taking full advantage of the few hours of sunshine afforded us by Mother Nature (it has been raining constantly for a week), we entered the beautiful Jardin des Plantes and drank in the fresh air as we tromped through the mud toward the museum. Along the way 200 year old trees graced the path, some boasting the brilliant colors of autumn. Children were burning off excess energy, as was a jogger, and an elderly woman walked her dog. Suddenly, we found ourselves face to face with the Gatekeeper of the museum, a formidable prehistoric beast! We carefully made our way past him and into another world; the history of planet Earth. I have never seen so many skeletons assembled in one location in my life, the entire first floor was crowded with the frame of every beast imaginable, large and small. There were bison and zebras and apes and wooly mammoths and rhinocerous and whales and crocodiles and flamingos. The walls were lined with glass cases that protected more gruesome collections; the spinal cords of who-knows-what preserved in formaldehyde, a human fetus, a little cat. I quickly turned away and concentrated on the mind blowing size of a North Sea whale, the skeleton of it's fins a giant fingered hand. Upstairs, dinosaurs reigned supreme, and on the top floor; fossils. We shared a laugh as I related to Madame V the story of a candidate for Senate in the United States, who wondered aloud why, if evolution was a fact, "we don't see monkeys turning into humans?" (Fortunately, she was not elected). Visit the Galeries de Paléontology et Anatomy every Tuesday through Sunday from 10h-17h. Closed Mondays and the 1st of May. Open all other holidays. Tariff 7 euro. Free the 1st Sunday of the month!