Friday, April 3, 2009

Jardin du Luxembourg

Jardin du Luxembourg is so close to Alliance Francais, I am still in a state of disbelief why I didn't visit this little gem of Paris earlier in the week! I am now two weeks into my French cours and I am having a good time. I've been introduced to many people from different nationalities, everyone has a story to tell. And amazingly not everyone can speak English, it's quite liberating for me because suddenly I am out of my comfort zone, I have to adapt and learn new things to communicate and at the same time to avoid misunderstanding in conversations. I guess one of the reason I write in my blog is too keep in touch with things, people, stuff that I am familiar with.

Luxemboug garden is unlike any gardens I've visited, from London's Hyde Park, New York Central Park, to Melbourne's Botannical Garden. Jardin du Luxembourg is like a invisible garden from the outside, gated my tall black gates running around the circle, it did not seem friendly at first. Which is part of the reason why it took me so long to visit, but once you are inside, everything is out in the open, beautiful in all aspect, with a little fountain here and there and small palace and statues of French philosophers. It is crowded from students from nearby Sorbonne to office people taking a break to eat in one of its wooden stool.

I sat facing this fellow, eating my sandwich while my mind is in a New York subway following Jannica's adventure in my new book.

A boy fell while running for his ball, he reminds me of Luke in Adam Gopnik's Paris to The Moon, he brought his small son to this garden almost every day when he lived in Paris in the mid 90's. Now I can understand why.

The old fellow clearly enjoyed his spot.

Where else in the world could you find a chic granny in a pink wool coat without a hint of care in the world reading her roman...but in Paris

1 comment:

eLLy* said...

Beautiful shots, Mel! Especially the one with the the old man.