The Natural History Museum in Toulouse is a complete marvel, one that has me goggling with my gob wide open each and every time. I love this place but oddly, I have to whizz through the taxidermy part at breakneck speed. It's something even my heart, with it's penchant for melancholy, can't cope with. The way the orang-utan stares at me from his glass tomb just does for me and I have to put my head down and quick step out of there.
But I don't feel the same with le mur des squelettes or the wall of skeletons, spread along the length of the museum over 3 levels and backed with glass giving onto the botanical gardens. Oh, how I love these! In a state of suspended animation; a cheetah brings down a gazelle, the monkeys hang upside and chatter to each other, an eagle dives for a hare and a man gallops through them all on a horse. A joyous affirmation of life.
The world dies over and over again, but the skeleton always gets up and walks.
