… A Day in the Park: The Luxembourg Gardens
John Evelyn's diary, April 1, 1644



So reads one of the nine articles of the Règlement du Jardin du Luxembourg, that most sublime of Paris parks that greens the Left Bank between the Latin Quarter and Montparnasse. Like countless enthusiasts who've visited the gardens in the last four centuries, I've stood at dawn before the wrought-iron gates waiting for the black-caped gardiens to let me in. On warm summer evenings, when the sun and moon meet in the canopy of horse-chestnut trees west of the Palais du Luxembourg, I've hidden in the shadows, savoring the dusky light, until the guards have ushered me out of those tall, uncompromising gates.

You are denied sunrises and sunsets at the Luxembourg (and the pleasures of the night) but little else worth mentioning. In their own way, the gardens are a perfect world: sixty acres of terraced woods and walks, fountains and pools, with sweeping perspectives along alleys of surgically clipped trees. There's an old-fashioned music stand, a quaint café, a restaurant and several snack bars. City and country embrace to seduce you. A day spent loitering here teaches you more about Paris and its inhabitants than many a scholarly tome….