A Stroll in the Jardin - Tuesday, 16 April

This afternoon I needed to run some errands in the Sevres-Babylone neighborhood (in and near the Bon Marche department and food stores).  Switching from bus 85 to bus 84 took me right past the Jardin du Luxembourg, and it was a lovely day and the park is so huge and well organized that it rarely feels cramped even if thousands of people are there.

So I decided to take a little stroll and, while I was at it, visit the statue of Sainte-Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, who saved Paris from Attila the Hun.   (In 451 Attila and his Huns were sweeping over Gaul, and the inhabitants of Paris prepared to flee. Genevieve encouraged them to hope and trust in God; she urged them to do works of penance, and added that if they did so the town would be spared. Her exhortations prevailed; the citizens recovered their calm, and Attila's hordes miraculously turned off towards Orléans, leaving Paris untouched.) 


The leaves on the trees in town responded enthusiastically to Sunday's warmth and sun, are now starting to unfurl.  Tulips and other bulbs are just starting to bloom, so although the garden doesn't yet display a riot of colors, the glorious freshness of hundreds of shades of green and the whites and pale pinks of flowering trees absolutely delight the eye.

I wish there was a way to record "a walk in the park" on a beautiful day to replay it on some future day when it is severely needed.  The warmth of the direct sun, the slight breeze, the clay paths under one's feet, the cool dappled shade under a canopy of green, the hoop edging on the grassy areas, the sculptures, people talking quietly, a mercifully small number of joggers bouncing past, people dragging two comfy metal chairs (one for their butt, one for their feet) to a good spot, pigeons pecking along the paths for crumbs of bread, classes of schoolkids chatting as they follow two-by-two behind their teacher, the splash of the fountains, unhurried haven from the mad rush of the boulevards.  Aaahhhhh...contentment.