Early last week, I saw an ad for “Expo Champignons,” and I knew I had to take Chad to this Mushroom Exposition.  I know, I know, it sounds silly to get excited about a mushroom festival in some random park in Paris, but let me tell you, when you are on vacation in Paris for a few weeks, you have the time to get excited about a mushroom festival.  And you go.  Partially because it’s free and partially becuase you’re all, “Meh, what else are we going to do today?”

We had no idea what to expect from this mushroom event.  Would there be mushrooms growing in the ground?  Would there be mushroom tastings?  Would there be large guys wearing mushroom hats and proclaiming the benefits of mushrooms?  For there record, there was none of this.  However, the mushroom expo was still awesome!

The expo was held in Pavilion 18 in Parc Floral.  Here’s a shot of the pavilion:

There were hundreds of species of mushrooms on display, each in its own tray with its own label.  Okay, okay, so I’m a total science girl, but even I was way nerdy into this expo.  I had no idea there were so many different types of mushrooms!  So many shapes and sizes and colors.  The labels that have a green stripe at the top are “good for cooking.”  The labels with the yellow stripe have “no cooking value.”  The labels with the red stripe indicate mushrooms that are “toxique” or “danger du morte”.  Yeah, I didn’t touch those bad boys.

It looks like just a bunch of tables with stuff on top.  But then here is the good stuff.  Did you know that mushrooms could look like this:

And this:

And this:

And that mushrooms could have red caps white spots in real life and not just from cartoons:

And… now you know why I nerded out.

However, my absolute favorite table was the one labeled “Odeurs”…smells.  Each mushroom on that table was labled with what it was supposed to smell like – candles, soap, garlic, and several words that I didn’t recognize.  One word that I did recognize, however, and which was a very true smell, was “anis”, licorice.  I tell you what, these blue mushrooms in this photo smelled just like black licorice.

It was unbelievable.  And now do you understand why I am so happy that I visited the mushroom exhibit at the park?