In Dallas while waiting in the Admiral’s Club for our flight to take off we met a delightful man who was taking his granddaughter to Paris for the week.  He was going for both business and pleasure and kept an apartment there.  We struck up a conversation with him, and our girls instantly became friends in the sweet way little girls seem to do.  We were surprised to see the two of them waiting patiently for us to disembark once we’d landed.  They wanted to invite us over to visit and then get out and do something together while we were all in Paris.  I must confess Burk and I are not spontaneous at all; to the contrary we are planners to the nth degree.  I realize that is not necessarily a good thing — it’s just how we are.  This precious man and his sweet granddaughter had offered us an unprecedented kink in our carefully laid plans.  Thankfully — for once — we decided to deviate.  And so, veering from our itinerary, we made our way to their apartment which was situated in a small, quiet courtyard in a lovely arrondissement.  We climbed the narrow stairs to the second level (which the French consider to be the first floor) waiting for our new friends to appear.  They welcomed us in graciously.  It was a Sunday and they had gone to the American Church in Paris that morning.  I found myself wishing we had attended as well; it is something we have yet to do.  As we were visiting, the suggestion came that we all go to the zoo.  Despite all my research, it had never occurred to me to take our little one to the ménagerie!  And so we set out via the Métro, the Paris rapid transit system, which is mostly underground.  Our train however would traverse a cool, clear tunnel with which I was unfamiliar that ran above the Seine.  As we made our way to one of the oldest zoos in the world I would also discover the Jardin des plantes (the main botanical garden in France) was just adjacent.  I recalled from a previous visit to Versailles the medicinal gardens had been transferred to Paris at the request of Marie Antionette.  It was an exceptionally hot day in June but our little group traversed with perserverance.  The zoo, which opened in 1794, looked extremely antiquated, but the animals were all small and were not in inhumane conditions.  Unlike many of its zoological predecessors, it was not all cement and tried to incorporate the natural elements.  I believe it must have been quite progressive in its day.  Of course my great love lies with wolves but the enclosures were too small to have them now.  I did capture this little beauty which is cousin to the wolf — the fox.  We had a wonderful time and parting was a bit sad.  The French novelist Marcel Proust once said, “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”  Walking around the Ménagerie and the Botanical Gardens of Paris with our new friends had definitely made our souls blossom; ironically we had already met them on our own soil — our charming gardners.