Parc Floral with Catherine

Our friend Catherine proposed a visit to the Parc Floral, where we had never been.  She had very kindly remembered my fondness for photographing flowers.  She had been a few days before and knew that the tulips would be in their prime.  So off we went.  

The tulips were indeed in their prime, and glorious in color, form and profusion. 

 There's always one: 

We shared the gardens with throngs of students eating their lunches.  Catherine explained that a testing center was located on the other edge of the parc, and the students were on their lunch break on their last day of testing to enter university.  Most seemed pretty calm to me, with only a few knots of them looking things up on their phones or in their notes. 
 

 After the tulips we walked through the azalea/rhododendron garden. 

As a special treat, near the restaurant where we found our lunch were two peacocks showing off.  They were as much a hit as the flowers. 

 

I mentioned to Catherine that in the US peacocks are common in zoos, and often are missing many tail feathers, since children chase them and grab their tails.  She was appalled. 

While we watched one brave bird cross the path, a toddler did indeed start to chase it, hand extended to grab a tail feather.  Mother grabbed the child firmly, though, and the bird and its tail escaped intact. 

 

Catherine took us on a wide loop on our way out of the parc.  On the way we passed a greenhouse exposition area devoted to bonsai.  While few were a old as the 500 year old trees we have seen in Hawaii, they were lovely and in original shapes and forms we had not seen before.   

 And just like that our delightful day with Catherine was over and she sped home on Velib, while we found our way home on the metro.