Explorers and gardens

Francis Garnier

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One of my heroes is the explorer Francis Garnier (no connection with Garnier, architect of the Opera House in Paris). He led a group up the Mekong River into Cambodia and Laos in the 1850s (hard to believe that this was largely unexplored at that time) and was responsible in part for the French interest and influence in Indochina. There is a statue of him at in the Observatory Gardens which I wanted to see. I found it odd that he is surrounded by very buxom ladies, not the nymph-like Laotian and Cambodian women he so admired.

This is an area I had not visited and I found much else of interest ; a fountain to the explorers Marco Polo and Cavalier de la Salle (explorer who came down from Canada into the Mid West and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico in the 1670s and 1680s) ; a fabulous brick building from the early 20^th Century which houses the Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Paris, and odd things in Luxembourg Gardens .. altogether a fascinating walk.