The Jardin du Luxembourg (the Luxembourg Gardens)

The Jardin du Luxembourg is my garden park away from home.  Since in the States I garden outside all spring, summer and fall, and in my glass porch in winter, I am in need of green and flowers while in Paris.  Our apartment has little direct light, so flowers don't do so well there. Cities, by their very nature, don't have much green stuff on the streets (trees if one is lucky).

We live a 5 minute walk from the J du L, a huge park (about 57 acres) that is also an arboretum.  While perhaps the most planted tree is the chestnut (it has a lovely scent when it flowers in the spring), there are trees from many parts of the world including southern magnolias, sequoias and birches from the US:

Sequoias in the Jardin

There are gingkos from Asia, and a large number of orange trees, which in winter stay in the orangery in the Palace du Luxembourg.  Many of the trees have small plaques to identify them.  In the summer the orangery is empty and is used for exhibits of contemporary artists, which I have had a chance to enjoy.

The palace was built by Catherine de Medici in the 1600s and graces one entire side of the park.  That palace now houses the French Senat, and also contains a small museum used for special art exhibits.  The Palace is guarded full time, since it is an important government building.

A view of the Palace of the Jardin du Luxembourg

At one end of the garden is a small orchard where apple and pear trees are experimented with:

I'm not sure why some of the fruit are covered with paper, but that's true for most of trees in the orchard.

There is also a bee hive station.  Two weekends ago, the park hosted an open park day and put on a number of activities including showing off the bees.  I bought honey from their hives.

Bee hive station

The center of the park looks like this:

There is a large pool (complete with ducks, and ducklings due to a duck house in the middle of it), with flower gardens nearby.  It is ringed by balastrades that are one level up and make the pool area appear to be sunken.  Back from the balastrades ringing the pool are statues of the queens of France including Catherine de Medici, but many others including Mary Stewart, who was Queen of Scotland, and while a Scot by birth, was married to the French King, Francis II, which made her a French queen too!

Statue of Catherine de Medici

There are 2 cafes in the park, one of which operates all the time.  There are many side gardens and wonderful statues around the park. 

Among the many other statues is this one, given by its creator, Auguste Bertoldi--it's only its normal size, not the size of the one in New York Harbor. 

Here is one of my favorites statues, that is very classical:

And here's one to remember the students who died in the Resistance in France in WW2:

I am especially fond of fountains.  The two I like best are the ones below, to honor Catherine de Medici, and the second to honor Eugene Delacroix, a famous French painter.  There are also statues for George Sands, other writers and some politicians of note as well.

I fast walk in the Jardin most mornings around 8 am.  Most of my fellow park goers then are runners, who are male, and generally under 40, though an occasional elder male and some young women runners can be found.  There are folks who are passing through the park on their way to work or with children, who are being walked to school.  But for the most part, I'm one of the few of my age and the rare fast walker.  There are also groups of runners, especially some of (the young and handsome) engineering fire and explosives brigade of the French Army who serve as the firemen of Paris (who all wear shirts that say "Sapeurs Pompiers de Paris"), and sometimes school kids with their teachers directing them.  Here is the gate where I generally enter the park:

I'm sure glad that the Jardin Du Luxembourg is the park that is closest to my place in Paris!

Visit to the Chateau de Versailles

Yesterday I went with my friend Nancy to the Musee D'Orsay, which is one of my favorite museums in the whole world.  Today we went from the sublime to the well, not ridiculous, but perhaps overdone is the right word:  the famous palace of Louis XIV, the Chateau de Versailles.  Louis took a hunting lodge and turned it into what many people consider a sumptuous and enormous palace.  I personally consider it the enormous, gaudy estate of someone with meglamania and too much of other people's money.  Here's a photo of just the gate to the estate:

Room after room of more gilt than anyone ought to have (and paintings every where, mostly of Louis or of gods he saw himself as representing).  One should scrape off the gilt and give it to the starving kids of the world!   But see below for what I did like--the gardens.

Below is the hall of mirrors.  I have to admit that it has astonishing beauty.

 

And it wouldn't be as impressive with white instead of gilt, but still....  Here's a closeup of one of the candle holders (electric now).

I also took photos of the floors--see the above photo--the inlay floor is nicer than in almost everyone's home, and we thousands of tourists just walked all over it.  Below is one of one of the many pieces of beautiful fabric that is all over the chateau.  This one happens to drape the king's bed.

The gardens of Versailles are quite remarkable.  They have 300 pools of water, all artificially constructed (there were 1500 originally).  Lovely flowers and lots of trees.  I favor the gardens because they give people a place to enjoy nature (and in the case of Versailles, lots of sculpture).
These two photos were taken from the second floor of the chateau, the first is the view onto the Royal Allee, which continues as far as the eye can see.  The second shows a garden section with the morning mist in the forest at the edge of the garden.

This is the fountain of Apollo, the sun god, after whom Louis XIV fashioned himself.  It was my favorite spot in Versailles.  Water and sculpture always works for me.

When King Louis XVI (descendant of Louis XIV) was beheaded, Versailles was overrun by people who pilfered many items.  It was restored at great cost by the kings of the 19th century and then was neglected again.  Later much of the furniture was sold off, and Versailles itself was almost sold (it was in a bad way).  It took a lot of money and many years to restore it.  In the photo below, you can see a piece of Versailles that is still being worked on.  In the 1900s, one of the people who contributed to its repair was John Rockefeller, who also paid a lion's share of the restoration of the cathedral at Reims, which was destroyed in WW1.

IVA 2013 In Edinburgh

At the tail end of August, we went to the Intelligent Virtual Agents meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Both Chuck and I have been to Edinburgh before, but going to a conference together there was a new experience.  We arrived a few days early so that our daughter S and a friend of hers could join us.  A friend of mine in Edinburgh lent us her condo to stay in, which was really wonderful.

In downtown Edinburgh, we wandered about.  I took this photo toward the Fifth of Fourth:

We also went to the Modern Art museum on foot.  The trek took us along the Leith (a local river), by old parts of the city and onto the grounds:

Waterfalls at Leith

Chuck and S along the Leith

Old Edinburgh

Along the way to the museum

Grounds of Modern Art Museum

We of course sampled food in Edinburgh (including Scotch).  While Chuck and I did conference meetings, in the evening, S. and friend saw the city, and one night they were able to go dancing (they are swing dancers).  On our last night, the Edinburgh Festival was ending.  We all watched the fireworks set off the Edinburgh Castle as we sat in blankets after picnic dinner in the park below.

Castle before the fireworks

Fireworks in Edinburgh

The Story of My Year in Paris

 On Aug 1, 2013, Chuck and I began a year long stay in Paris due to Chuck's sabbatical here.  I thought it might be fun to record some of my experiences while in Paris.  By the end of our stay, this book became the sum of all my postings over the year.

Dining Room

Living Room

To begin, our location is a lovely apartment in the 6th arrondissement near the border of the 14th arrondissement, on rue de Vaugirard.  It has 3 bedrooms, a bathing room, a small powder room, a dining room, living room, and kitchen with all the amenities.  That's very large by Paris standards!  To be sure it really is Paris, here's a photo with Chuck as seen out the living room window looking towards the Eiffel Tour:

It's hard to believe I really live in Paris, but I do!