Paris and Pangolins

It’s a few months now since we had a romantic weekend in Paris. Naturally we took cameras. Nothing says “I love you” like an overpriced padlock defacing a historic bridge.

And where the padlocks are absent, the graffiti tags take over:

I was pleased with this photograph, taken quickly before the illegal traders were cleared away.

All the model miniatures of the tower are placed on a sheet with handles so it can be whisked away before enforcement action can be taken.

Talking of being whisked away:

In amongst the traffic and bustle there’s still a modicum of wildlife. Crows and winter trees.

This Pigeon is handsome

The Eiffel Tower is such a stunning landmark.

It reminds me of childhood trips to Blackpool.

We were staying near the Pompidou Centre. Parts of it were covered in scaffolding. The rest of it is meant to look like that.

We have a trip to the Natural History Museum, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle. I love the gardens there.

Inside is this. Do you know what it is?

It’s the world’s most illegally traded animal. Pangolins are nocturnal, solitary, live in burrows and eat ants and termites. They are covered in scaly plates made of keratin, the same material which makes our hair and fingernails.

They are hunted, trafficked and used for meat and for their scales which are used in traditional Chinese medicine for excessive anxiety and hysterical crying in children, and women thought to be possessed by devils and ogres. Perhaps a better cure would be men being kind, rather than feeding women and children the equivalent of fingernails?

Here’s the evening view from Montmartre:

A view for lovers. Pangolin lovers.