One of the greatest pleasures in my life has been to spend hours strolling in various gardens in Paris. Le jardin du Luxembourg is my favourite, from the Statue of Liberty, wine grape plantation and apple orchard, to the flower beds around the pond (le bassin). I was too early for the little wooden boats to be out, but I've stuck in a pic below of Ben in his Jean-Claude guise in 2003.
Now, about those green chairs. Great place to sit and contemplate, read, check emails, snooze. Why can't we have amenity like this? Last time I was in new York, I noticed they also have them in Bryant park, behind the New York Public Library. Do the citizens of Paris, or New York, steal them, use them for anti-social purposes (I dunno - chair-raiding an ATM, for example?). Who provides them? The city? You don't have to hire them, no-one is making a profit (apart, I suppose from chair manufacturers). Why can't we have them?
What's that bloke behind glass doing? Well, he's the toilet attendant (very clean they are too - a steal at 40 centimes). The toilets are attached to the cafe in the garden, and to fill in time the attendant is multi-tasking by wrapping the cafe cutlery in napkins.....
YES! You hit the nail on the head.
ReplyDeleteLe jardin du Luxembourg is very inviting to ordinary families who want to sit in the sunshine, read, eat sandwiches, go boating. The statues are fun and the huge urns with colourful flowers flowing over the sides are gorgeous.
This is unusual (for me) since tightly clipped plantings are not normally as seductive as random clusters of trees and flower bed spread all around the place. But Le jardin du Luxembourg is big... and offers a bit of everything.
Classic shots, lovely place.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really like about these chairs is that people move them around depending on whether they're a group of four, a couple or alone, and also with the sun, depending on whether they want shade or sun. So on a busy day there'd be a constant moving around of chairs to suit, it's wonderful - much more versatile than benches !
me too nathalie! The versatliity is one f the things which make the garden so perfect!
ReplyDelete