Jardin du Luxembourg

Paris seems to have a park for every occasion.  Some are a bit wild, like the Parc de Buttes Chaumont, while others are manicured to a tee like the Jardin du Luxembourg.  This is the garden that surrounds the French Senate building and it is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon.

The Luxembourg Palace was built to the specifications of Marie de Medicis in 1611.  She modeled it after the Pitti Palace in her native Florence, and had a hand in designing the surrounding gardens.  After the French Revolution, the palace became home to the French Senate.

Near the Palace is the Medici Fountain, also commissioned by Marie de Medicis.  It was moved and rebuilt in the 1860s.

As we walked past the bandstand, we saw a group of kids setting up for a jazz concert.  They were introduced as the Minnesota Youth Jazz Band, and they were pretty good.  We sat and listened for a while.

In the center of the garden is an enormous shallow pool, where little kids can sail toy boats.  It looked like a lot of fun.

This park seems to have been designed with children in mind; in addition to the boats there are wading pools and several playgrounds.  This one had a mini zip line which was very popular.



Supposedly there is a marionnette show that runs daily.  Our guidebook says 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30 pm, but when we got to the stage area at 2:30 it looked completely closed for business.  So no marionnette show today!

Instead we sat down on a bench near the fruit tree orchard.  At least one gardener was hard at work keeping all the fruit trees in shape -- we saw multiple varieties of pears, apples, and other fruits we couldn't name.

I can tell these are pears...

...and these are probably apples.

Can't have flowers and fruit without bees, right?

Google hilariously translates that as "not to walk on the lawn -- endangered bees".  

The dangerous (or endangered) bees

There are hundreds of statues throughout the garden.  Here's one you might recognize - it's the first model for Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty.

After leaving the garden, we walked a few blocks to the Église St.-Sulpice.  The baroque-style church is known for its mismatched pair of towers, which give it a slightly lopsided appearance.  Too bad I only included the North tower in this photo.

Visconti's Fountain of the Four Bishops in the church square is very impressive; one of my favorites so far.

The interior is beautiful and very different from the gothic style cathedrals that we have seen (Notre Dame, St. Eustache).

Rounded arches throughout

The gilded pulpit

Chapel of the Virgin