AROUND SAINT-SULPICE

 Luxembourg Gardens

The Luco, as Parisians call these gardens, in reference to Mount Lucotitius, the name given by the Gallo-Romans to this part of Mount Sainte-Geneviève. Parisians are indeed strange people ... still using a Latin name for the district around the Luxembourg Gardens and ... keeping the name of the first owner – the Duke of Luxembourg – to name a palace and gardens in reality built by the Queen Marie de Medici. Well, the Luco is one of the largest gardens in Paris, with a large playground for kids and many quiet corners. It is a very nice garden for all seasons where people practise Tai Chi especially on Saturdays and Sundays.

As a child living on the right bank, on Sundays I was rather taken to theTuileries Gardens, which shape is very simple: a rectangle between the Louvre, the Seine, place de la Concorde and rue deRivoli.
It is only as a teenager that I discovered the Luxembourg gardens on a bright September afternoon.
On the north side, the Palais du Luxembourg which now serves as the home of the French Senate, and directly in front the terraced gardens and the octagonal pond.
This central axis extends to the south towards the Paris Observatory with the Jardins des Grands Explorateurs (Garden of Great Explorers).
On the west north side, the Musée du Luxembourg with its access on rue de Vaugirard.
Right next to it, the Orangerie where every September you can purchase the honey harvested by the beekeeping school in the Luxembourg gardens.
Landscape gardens with many trees and statues lead to the orchard gardens located at the south side along rue Auguste Comte.
And last, but not the least, on the north east side you will find the Medicis fountain.

There are several entrances and depending on the one you will choose, you will get a different view. Entering from the south or from the east, place Edmond Rostand, you will immediately see the palace. Entering from the west, rue Guynemer, you will reach the part with the playground for the kids, the petanque ground and the tennis courts.

I decided to enter into the garden from the southwest corner, porte Vavin, like a local or a beekeeper would do…

Going out of metro Vavin, turn right onto rue Vavin. The ones who rather take the bus can arrive rue Guynemer with bus lines 82 or 83.

Luxembourg Gardens - Apiary

The entrance is located next to the Davioud Pavilion.  Named after the French architect who designed the Observatory fountain with the sculpture byCarpeaux,The Four Parts of the World, in the Observatory gardens (see the stroll in Montparmasse).
He also designed theBassinSoufflot,place Edmond Rostand, fromwhere many photographs captured the breathtaking view of the Pantheon through the water jet.

The apiary is on the right at the end of the path. There is a growing trend of urban beekeeping spreading in Paris with hundreds of beehives on Parisian rooftops like Opéra Garnier, producing Miel Béton( "Concrete Honey"). However, this is definitely not new here where the beekeeping school was created in 1856. The apiary and the plant nursery were destroyed during the Haussmann's works, but fortunately restored in 1872.

Let's continue on the left to go to thepetanqueground and then to the playground.

Luxembourg Gardens - Playground

The playground for kids is a large fenced space with a lot of various modern activities. And there are also still the same games I played in my childhood like the old dual swing and a fun 19th carousel where children try to capture rings with a small stick. However, the 1889 mechanical horses are gone. I remember the fun I was riding these same horses at the Tuileries garden, and the squeaking noise of the springs under the energetic movement I was developing. I was certainly looking like a small Calamity Jane, far less classy than the hatted little girls photographed byAtget!

Luxembourg Gardens - Pony rides

The goat-cart rides for children were replaced a long time ago by donkey-cart rides replaced today by pony-rides. For how long ?

 Luxembourg landscape Gardens

Let's now go on the right, going south towards the orchard along rue AugusteComte. We follow winding lanes through a landscape garden with magnificent trees, vast green lawns and flowerbeds. All you want to do here is having a rest under a cedar tree or a giant sequoia, not far from the Baudelaire statue, which seems to whisper: There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure.

Jardin du Luxembourg - Orchard

We now arrive near the orchard along the lycée Montaigne. It is home to over 600 varieties of apples and pears, many very old with poetic names, all trained in complex growing styles such as espaliers, palmettes or pyramids. Since its creation in 1809, free public classes in gardening are provided.

 Luxembourg Gardens - Queens of France

Let's now walk toward the palace, leaving behind us the Jardin des Explorateurs along avenue de l'Observatoire.

We arrive on the terraces overlooking the flower beds around the basin. Around this central space, the twenty “Queens of France and Illustrious Women” as chosen by King Louis Philippe, form a little bit old fashioned round dance. To name a few, the statue of Marie de Medici, on the western side. Just after, Marguerite of Angouleme, Queen of Navarre and sister of King Francis I; she seems to pose with her left forefinger under her chin; her right arm around her waist and her right hand, holding a bouquet of daisies and resting on her left hip.

Let's go down the steps toward the basin where kids are playing with sailboats.

Luxembourg Gardens - Basin

Though I am associating this stroll with photos taken byAtget, other pictures come to mind. Like the ones taken by great photographers as Boubat and Brassaï, especially the ones of the garden under the snow. Like many others, they all photographed the octagonal basin; at different times, but with the same figure of a child, either leaning forward over the edge of the basin or standing, their gaze fixed on their sailing boat.

Boubat mainly photographed couples of lovers; such as the one kissing in front of a small sailboat looking ready for a trip to Kythera. These small painted and varnished sailboats have been on hire since 1881. Today of all colors and carrying the banner of a country or a pirate, they are still in vogue in the age of the tablet and video games.

Let’s now go back up to the terraces and walk toward the east side of the garden.

 Luxembourg Gardens - The Dancing Fauna

Near place Edmond Rostand, you cannot miss the light figure of the dancing fauna, perfectly balanced on one foot.

 Luxembourg Gardens - Medici fountain

Let’s now walk up the alley running along rue de Médicis. On our left, the former Fontaine du Regard added to the back of the Medici Fountain. Initially the Fontaine du Regard was leaning against a wall at the corner of rue Vaugirard and was moved when rue de Rennes was created. Since then, water no longer flows from the swan’s beak.

 Luxembourg Gardens - The Triumph of Silenus

We are now walking in front of the Palace toward rue Guynemer where we will exit from the garden and go to rue Bonaparte.
Before exiting, we can see on our left an impressive bronze statue by Jules Dalou,depicting quite a wacky scene with Silenus, adoptive father of Dyonisos.The drunkard is staggering on a donkey, crumbling under the weight of the naked and paunchy satyr. And a whole group of men, women and children is holding the god at arm's-length to prevent him from falling.

Rue Bonaparte

We now exit the garden to go to the Saint-Sulpice square by the Bonaparte Street.

We pass by the No 88, rue Bonaparte, with its listed gate, where lived Abbé Gregoire, today in the Pantheon since 1989. During the French Revolution, he pleaded to the Constituent Assembly the full equality of the Jewish rights and the abolition of slavery. We refer to him in our walk in the northern Marais where he founded the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (Arts and Crafts Conservatory), as he wanted to improve the industry and to pass on the know-how.

Place Saint-Sulpice

We have now arrived at Place Saint-Sulpice. I will simply reuse the words of the writer Georges Perec who in 1974 observed the place for three days in the Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris.

“There are many things in place Saint-Sulpice; for instance: a district council building, a financial building, a police station, three cafés, one of which sells tobacco and stamps, a movie theater, a church on which Le Vau, Gittard, Oppenord, Servandoni and Chalgrin have all worked, and which is dedicated to a chaplain of Clotaire II, who was bishop of Bourges from 624 to 644 and whom we celebrate on 17 January, a publisher, a funeral parlor, a travel agency, a bus stop, a tailor, a hotel, a fountain decorated with the statues of four great Christian orators (Bossuet, Fénelon, Fléchier, and Massillon), a newsstand, a seller of pious objects, a parking lot, a beauty parlor, and many other things as well.

A great number, if not the majority, of these things have been described, inventoried, photographed, talked about, or registered. My intention in the pages that follow was to describe the rest instead: that which is generally not taken note of, that which is not noticed, that which has no importance: what happens when nothing happens other than the weather, people, cars, and clouds."

(Translation : Marc Lowenthal)

Since Atget, much time has passed and since 1974, many people, cars and clouds have also passed. The tall church built in the 17th century still towers above the fountain; the administrative buildings still provide services.

Of the three bistros, from which Pérec observed this very Parisian place, only one remains: the Café de la Mairie at the corner of Rue des Canettes.This is also where Antoine (Fabrice Lucchini) meets Catherine (Judith Henry) in the movie La Discrète (The Discreet). However, one may wonder whether this Italian style square could still be a place today to observe the simple daily life, so much the place has become so chic.