Bears in Paris and Washington

The area around the Paris hotel where we stayed in May is inhabited by a number of large bears.
I don’t know what this mother bear is called, but we did see another one named Gwendolyn.
The bears seem perfect for sharing with Paris in July!

The unnamed bear and her cub were enjoying their table at a sidewalk cafe.
When we passed by later, they weren’t there any more.

Aside: Gustave Caillebotte painted “The Boulevard Seen from Above” in 1880.

I find it fascinating that the trees in Paris still are protected by the same type of grates.

What the bears can see: school children crossing the boulevard. In French, nounours is the word for teddy bear.
These are “Les nounours des goblins” and they have their own Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest pages (link).

Another bear. We saw at least two more but didn’t take a photo.
For example, we saw the famous one in the window of a plumbing shop that has
his head in a toilet (ugh!).

Instagram page titled Les nounours des gobelins: “Les nounours arrivent aux Gobelins pensant retrouver la terre de leurs ancêtres mais les choses ont bien changé depuis 35000 ans !”

Is this a coincidence? Or was the owner of this cafe in Washington influenced by Paris?

The Story of the Bears

In 2018 a bookstore owner in the area of Paris near the metro stop Les Gobelins distributed a number of these large bears to businesses and residents near his shop. Many of them are still scattered throughout the neighborhood, as we noticed on our brief stay there in May. Some of the bears evidently went into hibernation before the pandemic, but re-emerged to raise people’s spirits during that time. Obviously, they are still appearing in the neighborhood of Les Gobelins and many other locations, maybe even in Washington. For more history, see this wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_bears_of_the_Gobelins

Photos © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Paris in July and Eileen’s Saturday Critters.