Bois de Boulogne

On Monday, the weather was supposed to be only intermittently rainy, so we decided it was a good day to go explore the Bois de Boulogne, one of Paris's two enormous parks. The Bois de Boulogne is located on the far west side of the city, near La Défense; the other park is the Bois de Vincennes, located on the far east side of the city. (We have not made it to the Bois de Vincennes yet, but we may try to go there when we return to Paris for a couple of days at the end of May.)

Our walk through the park started out pleasant but uneventful -- we followed the path around one of the several lakes, meeting only a few other walkers or joggers since it was the middle of a week day; we assume the park must get much more traffic on the weekends. We eventually made our way to the Parc de Bagatelle, a park-within-the-park that is probably no more than 10% of the area of the whole Bois de Boulogne, but it was still large enough for us to wander around for a good hour or two.

There was, however, something slowing us down in our wandering: peacocks.

Now, I'm not talking about just one or two peacocks, such as we have come across at a few of the chateaus we have visited outside of Paris on weekend day trips. I'm talking about flocks of peacocks. Herds of peacocks. Hordes of peacocks. OK, maybe not hordes, but certainly groups. And since it appears to be the height of peacock mating season, they were putting on quite a show. Below are a few of the highlights.

Basic peacock



Full frontal peacock



Rear view



Windblown peacock



Reverse windblown peacock



Three males pursuing one female



Peacocks in action -- or rather, male peacock attempting (unsuccessfully, as far as we saw) to get some action



Other park views:

Chateau de Bagatelle (not currently open to the public)



Skyscrapers of La Défense visible from within the Parc de Bagatelle -- with peacocks, of course!