research and walking

First stop, a sculpture of a straw beehive that told passersby of a honey shop, back in the C19th.

This isn't research - it's just a shop window completely full of models of Japanese food, disconcertingly realistic.

But not a lot can possibly be as disconcerting as the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature - there seemed to be a great deal more Chasse than Nature.  Some of the victims had clearly escaped - most of the antique chairs had teasels on them to stop one sitting, but the one went for a more aggressive message.

Two of my chapters seem to have got together at some point in the C19th and made a sofa - bees and snails.

But the best bits for me were where contemporary art worked as a commentary on all the paintings and sculptures and tapestries of dead or dying animals - let alone on the stuffed animals and antlers and guns.  There was a Mark Dion hunting cabin; an urban owl;

and this terrific collage by Daniel Horowitz, Cervus armatus, which could stand in for my whole argument about moorland and peatlands being underpinned by violence.

Then, as an antidote - and it was a beautiful day - I walked down the Coulée verte from Bastille to Vincennes - a million thanks to Avigail for the recommendation.  This was the inspiration behind the High Line in NY.  It started off park like and manicured;

passed through a more urban section;

became very dark and bosky,

and by the end was, indeed, abandoned railroad tracks.  And then there was a bus back right to Saint-Michel!

And happily, at dinner, I was able to order the lentilles that I never got to eat in Puy this summer ...