Musee de la Histoire Naturelle

Since our flight back home is delayed :( I might as well post some blog pics while waiting and hoping that the delays do not escalate...

A google search for Parisian museums that we haven't yet been to, and which were open on Mondays, yielded a surprisingly limited list of options. We eed up going to the Musee de la Histoire Naturelle. It's actually a collection of museums; we had seen the Grande Galerie d'Evolution on our last trip, so this time we went to see the Galleries of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy. Very cool: here are some pictures.

The building is an old and impressive one right next door to the Jardin des Plantes, a large outdoor garden.
It snowed quite a bit (by Parisian standards) while we there, as attested to by this outdoor wooly mammoth sculpture.
You are greeted at the entrance to the museum by this bizarre yet captivating sculpture of an orangutang strangling a human.

Lots of skeletons.
The ultimate trophy collection.
Juvenile gorilla skeleton.
Impressively large whale skeletons.

Fish-heads, fish-heads, roly-poly fish-heads.
Skeletons-in-flight.
Wish us luck on our trip back home! This vacation has been sufficiently long that I'm anxious to get back to our normal, non-vacation lives if that makes any sense.