The Wildlife

Well, it's officially summer here. 

The ducklings in the river have become ducks, although the moorhen chicks are still tiny and ridiculous:

The tourists have arrived in the piazzas, and the Italians are heading for the sea or the mountains. We visited Paris again, for manuscript and baked-goods research junket #2. 

Bonjour. Je m'appelle Boule Levain.

We happened to be there for European museum night, when all of the museums are open (and free!) until midnight or later. This made for an improbable evening of sightseeing. On a whim we visited the Museum of the Hunt and of Nature, which may be the oddest museum I have ever seen. It began as the trophy collection of a sport-hunting couple, and evolved at some point into a full-scale nature-themed hallucinatory experience. The trophy room featured (among the exotic game) a boar's head which had been mechanized to blink and snarl in French from time to time, spectacularly startling museum-goers. One taxidermied deer lounged on a divan, while another had actual dung arranged realistically behind it. Owls were arrayed on the ceiling:

Anyway... it's worth a visit. Or rent it out for your next special event!

Make yourself at home!

We also visited the Arts and Métiers museum, and admired their exhibit on the evolution of the bicycle. 

The velocipede: cycling's evolutionary dead end.

In other cycling news, we arrived back home in time to watch the Giro d'Italia make its triumphant entry into Florence.

We were positioned just after the finish line, which meant that we saw a bunch of sweaty cyclists pull up slowly and guzzle energy drinks. It's probably more impressive when they're moving.

We've also been doing some hiking lately. We found a great hiking trail that loops around Florence in a big ring-- about 120 miles total-- and are trying to complete the route in a series of day hikes (so far we've done about 1/3). The trail goes on tiny country roads through olive groves, vineyards, and pastures full of wild poppies, or on old mule paths in chestnut or cypress forests. 

Former kiln (or pizza oven?)

It seems that hiking is not such a popular activity, since we have seen exactly zero other hikers on the trails. We have seen some wildlife, though, including a wild boar and... an ostrich! (I think it was someone's pet.) I did manage to take a photo of the ostrich, but my hard drive expired before I could upload it. The dissertation is intact thanks to obsessive backing up, but the photographic evidence of the ostrich encounter has been reduced to a clanking sound coming from my laptop. Just use your imagination...