Luxembourg Gardens

Today Ryne and I visited Jardin du Luxembourg, the largest public park in Paris at over 55 acres. The grounds surround Luxembourg Palace, home to the French Senate. Like many French parks, there are flowers, fountains and various statues and sculpture scattered throughout – even including another miniature Statue of Liberty. There was also a bee-keeping area in the park which was interesting. Parks are also a favorite spot of mine to people watch! There were a lot of people there today (on account of no rain!) all of them enjoying the weather and participating in various activities: eating lunch, napping, jogging, chatting, reading, sketching, or playing chess.

Luxembourg Palace

Cherry blossoms

These flowers smelled SO good!

Pretty!

Marie de Medicis fountain

Bee-keeping hut

"Mommy, I found a stick for you"

Ryne and I spent about 3 hours there walking around. One bit of excitement – there was a protest on one of the main streets that borders the park. Not sure what they were protesting though…I didn’t hang around long enough to find out! I did take some pictures of the “SWAT” team (The French Gendarmerie) in all of their riot gear though. Right after I took the pictures, they lined up and started marching towards the protesters with their shields raised. I figured it was time for us to head to the other side of the park at that point…didn’t want to stay around in case things got ugly! Luckily the roads were protestor free when we left – whew!

The French Gendarmerie keeping things peaceful

It was nice just walking around taking in the beauty of the park. When I wasn’t taking pictures or people watching, I was busy keeping track of things that Ryne was tossing out of the stroller! Every time I put his socks on, he would reach down and take them off. On at least three separate occasions, kind strangers would run up to me and tap me on the shoulder saying “Madame, chaussette!” We even almost lost Froggy. Luckily, I retraced my steps when I noticed he was missing and someone had been nice enough to set him on a bench for us! Froggy is Ryne’s pal that we lug around during the day while Cubbie stays at home. So, although not as important as Cubbie, it still would have been a devastating loss. A woman from Canada insisted on taking a picture of me and Ryne. What a fun day!!!

This picture was taken right after we found Froggy!