Swan Babies

A week ago, Jeannette and I discovered the swan nest in town along the Neckar. We both thought it was way too close to the walking path. Mama Swan was taking care of her nest and 6 eggs, and it was fun to watch her lay down on them, and reach for nearby twigs to tuck into the cracks between her body and the nest. Every 5 minutes or so she would stand up, rearrange an egg or two (by sliding he beak and head under one and pushing/rolling it around) and plop down again, re-tucking her babies in.



On Saturday, we discovered that some of the eggs had hatched. Mama was still taking care of two eggs, and there were two fuzzy little swan babies swimming around with Papa. We have no idea what happened to the other two eggs...



This time I had my camera and got a few decent shots. I hope the swan family didn't mind...

Surreal

We were in Paris for Easter weekend. (On a note completely unrelated to the rest of this post, except for the fact that it concerns Paris, don't go to Paris for Easter weekend. Unless you like battling crowds and dealing with lots of closed things). On Sunday we got to the Louvre early and were among the first 15-20 in line. We got through the ticket machines before most people could even find them and had a nice morning checking out the famous works of art.

When we left the palace grounds, and looked down the Rue de Rivoli, we saw a row of swastika flags. The photo above doesn't show the whole effect. The whole block was lined with them. What the hell? We knew the French elections were heating up the next day - was there some big political rally for a Nazi party or something?

We had to check it out - not because we support that sort of thing or anything - but because there is no way you could see this in Germany. At least legally in such a public place.

As we were walking there, Jeannette pointed out the McDonald's logo with the Nazi flags, and I found it a very strange combination and had to take a picture.

It turns out it was a movie set. Apparently starring Moritz Bleibtreu. I tried to do the Paparazzi thing. Maybe the pictures turned out... Haven't had time to look.


More from Paris, later...