I never ended up posting a lot of the photos I took on my trip to France and Germany in 2007, so I’m taking this daily posting as an excuse to share some of them.
These are from Le Jardin des Plantes (or “The Garden of Plants”), which is a large (and I do mean large) botanical garden in Paris, France.
The main garden path.
Various colors of flowers. I have no idea what kind any of these are. Well, the red ones look sort of chrysanthemum-like to me, and the yellow ones look daisy-like.
Gray flower. (Okay, it’s a drain. But it’s flower-shaped, and I thought it was cool.)
There was also a big dragon, made out of recycled materials.
Here’s a close-up of the claw of the dragon, showing its aluminum can scales.
Yes, the cans are what made me think of these photos, what with my preceding two can-related posts. I was going to post them yesterday, but was deflected from this path by the reflection theme. A reflection defection, as it were. Oddly enough, it was not the garden path that led me astray. I guess it was just something else shiny.
collecting tokens 
Wow that dragon is really something !
I love how the French can’t just let things grow, they have to sculpt them until the hand of man is more apparent than the hand of nature. It’s so odd, but beautiful.
That shot of the drain is really fabulous.
As cool as the dragon is…it kind of seems out of place. I wonder if there was some kind of story linking a dragon to that place.
At her grandmother’s suggestion, my daughter is making a (totally useless) foil ball. Right now it’s about the size of a small soccer ball (really, football, because she can’t get it to be round) and she insists she is going to continue until it is too big to roll out the door. Thank you, thank you for providing some inspiration that might just save my sanity by transforming this foil project into something magical.
i think some of those flowers are dahlias (the white-orange, orange, and white ones), given their size and the time of year (although i could be completely wrong). mine start blooming in late summer/early fall.
beautimous flower photos. and you know i loves me some flower photos!
I love that dragon! Thanks for sharing the photos. I particularly like that the people in the full photo don’t seem at all interested or intrigued by the presence of the dragon. Yes, the flowers are lovely, but I’d have been all about that sculture!
I’m loving all the picture posts :o)
I can’t if I like the dragon or the drain better. Or the flowers.
Oh to be in Paris.
Gorgeous! I like the drain, too.
Well you sure hit it at the right time of year – those flowers are gorgeous!
And the drain is way cool, but why does the dragon have a big ball of fluff for a face?
sassy-
Yes, the French do like to put their plants in order. What I didn’t mention was that the flowers were planted in beds according to their color.
blc-
Thanks. I like it, too.
mtae-
You have a point. It does seem a bit odd in such a formal garden. I did a bit of poking, and it looks like the Evolution Museum (which is the large building at the end of the path) had an exhibit on dragons a couple of years ago. I wonder if the can dragon was put up to tie in with that.
de-
Oh, that would be cool. I hope you’ll post photos of whatever she ends up creating.
jenny-
Ah, dahlias. That seems likely. They were quite photogenic, whatever they were.
girlgriot-
Yeah, the dragon was very cool. I’ve put up some more photos of it.
Mme. Meow-
Thanks! I have so many photos that never see the light of day, so it’s fun to put some out there.
magpie-
It was really a great trip. I had fun looking back at my photos from it. I want to go back.
Mary-
I love it when common functional objects are interesting and aesthetically pleasing.
flying mum-
Your question has provoked me to post more photos! And yeah, it was a great time of year, and an amazingly beautiful day. Sigh. (I’m feeling all nostalgic now.)