Stephanie in the City of Lights: Parc Monceau and Musée Cernuschi

Salut tous!
So, continuing my Museum Wednesdays series, today I flipped through my handy Fodor's Paris 2011 looking for a good museum, and le musée Cernuschi caught my eye. Cernuschi was apparently an Italian national who had to flee Italy during the course of its unification (1860s) because he supported the formation of Italy as a republic, whereas the men in power wanted a monarchy. So he came to France, which was... also a monarchy, actually. And then in 1870-71, the Parisians revolted against Emperor Napoléon III and there was a big struggle over what the new government would be, and it ended up being a republic, actually, but Cernuschi decided to leave anyway--too much drama--and travel the world. So he went to Asia and came back with a lot of Asian art! And then after his death, his house and his collection were made into a museum by the city of Paris. (That's all from the Fodor's guide, by the way--the museum itself didn't mention any of that, as far as I saw.) The other appeal to me was that this museum is right next to a park, le parc Monceau, which I haven't yet visited, and it was mostly sunny and fairly mild this afternoon, so I thought it would be nice to be outside a bit as well. And it ended up being a really cool park! It wasn't very big (neither was the museum, actually), but it was really interesting, mostly because there were lots of interesting sculptures and statues there. Also, there were still flowers blooming everywhere! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because we haven't had a frost here yet as far as I know, but then that's also unusual, at least for me! There are never flowers still blooming outdoors in Massachusetts or New York at this time of year! And there weren't just flowers--there was an orange tree with oranges! And palm trees! Outside! And alive! It was pretty crazy, I thought. So I enjoyed walking around and seeing all the flora.

An apple pie and a cream doughnut mated, and this happened.
(Yes, this has nothing to do with anything else here!
But I ate it yesterday, and it was delicious!)