As I’ve mentioned, on our visit to Paris we really enjoyed hanging out in the Tuileries Garden. There were many green metal chairs — some even recliner-style — scattered around the gardens, making it  a great place to sit and people watch. We did that a little on our first evening in Paris, and then went back the next afternoon to do it again. Both days we say near the closed-for-repairs fountain, with our backs to a dry moat area that surrounds a portion of the gardens.

The first day, we enjoyed the view of the surroundings in front of us. On the second day, I happened to glance behind us at one point, and was startled to see a huge mountain goat — on the other side of the moat – staring back at me.  Yikes – where the heck dd that come from?! It wasn’t there when we sat down, nor did we see it the day before!

As it turns out, there are two of those goats employed by the city to keep grass in the moat area “mowed.”  I.e., the goats are set up each day to eat the grass along the inside of the moat, a place too steep place for a power mower, but not too steep for a mountain goat.  The goats seem to be housed somewhere beneath the gardens – at least there’s a little entrance inside the moat where they appear to retreat to at the end of the day. That allows them to seem to appear and disappear quite suddenly, which is rather striking if you’re not expecting it.

Anyway, we went over to the gardens to say hi to the goats just about every day we were in Paris. On our last morning, after eating  breakfast at a nearby cafe that had become “our” cafe for breakfast in the mornings in Paris ;-), we  headed over to the gardens for one people watching session. As we sat in that same section near the moat,  an older man in a white vest and blue blazer suddenly strode purposefully by, talking a mile a minute on a cell phone as he walked. A woman in sturdy pumps trailed behind him trying to keep up, all the while  holding up a pen before her. There was  no particular reason that we could see, though,  as neither one was holding any papers for which the pen might have proven useful.

Now, we didn’t really hear what the man said to whomever he was talking to on the phone, but it seemed clear as they walked and continually gaze around the gardens that this couple was looking for the goats. The goats, we suddenly realized, were actually nowhere to be seen.

A few minutes later, the man and his entourage-of-one returned, striding by just as quickly as before, still talking on his cell phone and glancing all around. The woman continued to trail behind with her pen held up,  as though it were an offering.  I don’t know if they actually tracked down the whereabouts of the goats (which we saw later in a different part of the gardens). However, it seemed certain that something had clearly gotten that man’s goat. As it were.

Anyway, in the photo gallery below you’ll find a few photos of the goats and their “work place” in the Tuileries Garden in Paris.

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P.S. I should note that I don’t know for sure that goats are really “mountain goats”.   However, I do have a long history of liking the idea of mountain goats, and what may or may not be too steep for them.  😉