Garlanded Crocodile

This crocodile waddled into the water wearing a huge blossom on its head.  Huge blossoms had fallen into the surrounding water from a nearby tree, and garlanded the croc.  I managed to take this picture before the flowers floated away, because it made such a strange juxtaposition of sweet and scary.

Since I concentrate mostly on places not too far from England, you can perhaps guess that the croc was not lurking in tropical waters. I saw it at a fascinating place in France called La Planète des Crocodiles, in the Poitou-Charentes region.  This sanctuary for crocodilians is housed in a big glass dome full of striking tropical plants flowering and fruiting all over the place.  The sanctuary is heated by waste heat from a nearby power station, and although I visited in early summer, I'm sure it would make quite a sanctuary for humans in the winter with its  steamy heat and decidedly exotic flowers. 

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This is the first time I've had access to the blog for nearly two weeks because I have not been at home and haven't been able to log in.  Thank you for the comments, which I've just enabled, and I will get back to "normal service" very soon.