Saturday we met at the Jardin des Plantes which is not one of the typical tourist sights. It dates back to the 17th century, though it came into its own as a park for the people after the French Revolution. It is sort of a combination botanic garden, science and industry museum, zoo, and exhibition space.
The day we were there, the poppies were out in beautiful force ( les coquelicots - one of my favorite French words to say).
In amongst the poppies were the largest ornamental rainbow chards I've ever seen, perhaps harkening back to the garden's original purpose as an herbarium.
As we continued, this chiropractor's eye was caught by a ginormous vertebra on the lawn (turned out to be a sculpture) - dinosaur skeleton perhaps?
We also strolled through the rose garden
By then we were ready to sit and to eat so we passed on the little zoo, but not before getting a peek at the panda rouge S/he was a little camera shy so we had to crib a photo from the zoo poster:
