Jardins du Luxembourg - Thursday, 12 November

I took a short stroll in Luxembourg Gardens this morning, and thought you might like to see some snapshots. This is an enormous (more than 60 acres) set of gardens in the heart of Paris, just on the south end of the Latin Quarter and very close to the Sorbonne. The large palace on the grounds was built for Marie de Médicis in 1620. It contains formal terraces, gravel paths, a giant pond (on which kids launch toy sailboats in the summer), a candy stand, a coffee shop, orchards with 300 varieties of apples, an apiary (that apparently gives beekeeping lessons), a bandstand, pony rides, chess tables, tennis courts, graceful sculptures, a merry-go-round, and thousands of benches and chairs in which to relax. Who says city living is confining?

I gotta say it was very thoughtful of them to plant a big bed of maroon and gold mums in honor of Duluth Denfeld High School to commemorate my visit!!!

Here’s a panorama of the pond and area closest to the palace. Ain’t technology grand?!? My new camera came with software that can automatically analyze and “knit together” a set of photos into a panorama.


And here’s the statue of Sainte Geneviève, patron saint of Paris. My guidebook says of her: “By the early fifth century, Roman rule had effectively collapsed in northern Gaul. In the ensuing chaos, the exemplary life of Ste-Geneviève – and the threat of war – helped confirm many converts in the new faith. As the legend goes, in 451 Attila the Hun and his army were approaching Paris. Its people prepared to flee, but Geneviève told them to stay, saying the Hun would spare their city so long as they repented of their sins and prayed with her. Miraculously, Attila moved off to the south. Geneviève was acclaimed savior of Paris.” What a woman! My kind of heroine!