We went to
Parc Floral the other day, a beautiful park in the Bois de Vincennes, situated in the 12th arrondissement in the south east of Paris, accessible by metro (line 1). In the 19th Century the Bois de Vincennes was an area of woodland primarily used for military training. In 1860 Napolean III gave up the land to the City of Paris and it was transformed into a public park, along the lines of the bois de Boulogne. At the third International Flower Festival in 1960, the concept of creating a special park to house a wide range flowers from around the world was initiated. Nine years later the Parc Floral was inaugurated.
When we went the other day it was a gorgeous sunny and mild day. Near the entrance to the park they have an exhibition of spiders, floral spiders woven out of twigs and flowers. There are dozens of these spiders, big and small. Here are a few examples. They're just lovely.
They even have ones wearing glasses.
Ironically they also had a floral tortoise. I say ironically as my kids either call me a spider (due to long gangly arms and legs), or a tortoise (due to my bad posture...see aforementioned long gangly arms and legs). They were thrilled, charging round saying "Mama, look, another ones of your cousins!"
