Butterflies

Of course the children were eager to show their grandmother their beloved Parc Floral, and when we visited on April 18 we were happy to see that the Serre aux Papillons (butterfly house) had reopened for the season. Before visiting the butterflies in their special temperature-and-humidity-controlled greenhouse, we sat and watched a 15-minute video about the Serre. In the film, the chief entymologist explained all about how the butterflies are raised and cared for.

After the video, we walked into the big room where all the butterflies live and ran into this same man. He was extremely friendly and all too happy to answer our questions (also, having grown up in Turkey, he seemed to have a soft spot for foreigners living in France). He even went into the special butterfly cage where a few were being held for egg-laying, and brought out an enormous, docile butterfly, which he let us all hold. That's him in the first photo, posing with Sandy and the Atlas butterfly. The same Atlas is on Molly's arm below. Visit the butterfly house web page and click on the "cliquez ici" in the lower right-hand corner of the page for a slideshow of the other butterflies there.

This all happened right before Sandy went to meet her friends in Paris for 36 hours. While she was there she learned that Jean-Paul has been rebelling a little at work by wearing a butterfly clip as a sort of a bow-tie, to get out of wearing a tie altogether. A couple of other guys at work are doing it now, as are a couple of the merchants (like the baker) that Jean-Paul sees regularly. Atlas approves. And she's ready to help if need be.