On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Our 15th and final submission for Paris After Dark arrived just a few moments ago. That gives us 3 full weeks of Paris, which I think is good. Any others that arrive will be slotted in during the morning On the Road, in the usual fashion.
It’s probably silly, but I found myself wondering whether Marie de Medici liked this statue of herself. What a beautiful sky, with all the swirls of white against the bright blue. We don’t get skies like that in Illinois. ~WaterGirl
ET
I took all of these photos at Luxembourg Gardens or Jardin du Luxembourg back in 2016. The gardens/palace was created beginning in 1612 by Marie de’ Medici (widow of King Henry IV) , for a new residence, the Luxembourg Palace. There are just over a hundred statues, monuments, and fountains including twenty figures of French queens and illustrious women. I didn’t take photos of all of them – that day Paris on a beautiful sunny day was waiting!
This statue is Marie de Medici herself.
Lapassionara
Oh, my. I do love the Paris photos. Thank you for this respite from the pandemic news.
arrieve
One of my favorite places — I love those Parisian skies.
Auntie Anne
Oh, how beautiful! I never got to the Luxembourg Gardens, but it’s on my list now.
MissWimsey
My first trip ever to Europe was taken to Paris/Amsterdam last August. My hotel was across the street from the Pantheon. I spent a couple of afternoons at Luxembourg Gardens resting after long days of simply waking, absorbing the fact that I had finally made it to Paris. It was an amazing five days before I moved on to Amsterdam.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
My submission also includes a photo of the Jardin du Luxembourg and I think it was in last night’s entry as well. Seems to be much more popular than I realized. I had never heard of it before stumbling across it while doing a long aimless walk around Paris.
Wag
Very nice! Thank you for sharing!
Omnes Omnibus
@MissWimsey: It’s funny, isn’t it? For a certain type of person, the being Paris part of being in Paris has its own charm. I will put up with tiny or weird showers and all sorts of other inconveniences that I wouldn’t accept in, for example, Germany because I am in France and not just France, but Paris. The last time I was there I stayed in a shitty little expensive place just off the Boul’ Clichy. I spent time there to sleep and shower so it didn’t matter.
Omnes Omnibus
Some mood music for the post.
MissWimsey
@Omnes Omnibus: I did do the touristy things: a couple of museums, River cruise, Eiffel Tower. But exploring the Latin Quarter, Montmartre was one of the best parts of the time I spent in Paris. The other was the food. I feel I didn’t eat nearly enough. My siblings. assorted spouses and kids, and our parents were supposed to all meet in Paris this past June. For obvious reasons it didn’t happen. But I look forward to the day I can get back Paris.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: And more.
Elizabelle
@ ET: your photos are not only beautiful, they are from the wonderful summer pre-
Trump. Ah, the earlier days of 2016.OK. Palais du Luxembourg and its gardens goes on the 2-year bucket list. Assuming Europe ever lets us in again.
@ Omnes: charming version of that song.
There go two miscreants
Very nice. That is one of the places that I haven’t seen, so the pix are appreciated!
frosty
@Omnes Omnibus: I feel the same way, even though the rest of my family apparently didn’t. I don’t have the same reaction to London or NYC, for example.
Omnes Omnibus
@frosty: A lot of us have the Luke Wilson in “Midnight in Paris” thing going on.
stevecrickmore
When, I think of the elegant Le Jardin de Luxembourg I get a little as the French say ´nostalgie de la boue’. nostalgia of the mud. At the age of 26, first arriving in Paris in May of 1976, to live, I was practically penniless, so I used to sleep rough, overnight in a down sleeping bag in le Jardin de Luxembourg. The iron rod gates that surrounded the entire park kept it safe; somehow, I slipped in, before or after the park closed every night. I got a job at the first restaurant I applied for, very near the park and Odeon. One week later, my employer at the Osteria Marco Polo, 5 Rue de Conde -it is still there-I just began work as a dishwasher /plongeur/garcon, sensing where I was trundling off to every night, arranged ‘a bonne’, a maid’s room, on the top floor, with a skylight, for 50 francs a month, (about ten dollars) opposite the restaurant, From there things slowly improved and I spent I would say, the best two years of my life, in Paris. Eventually I became the reserve chauffeur for Claude Francois who wrote and sang the Comme d´Habitude, the original My Way, until he died in a tragic accident in his bathtub in 1978. He was electrocuted by a radio that fell in.
rikyrah
Paris
Paris
Paris???
Sab
My French has rusted away completely, so good thing that I can’t travel in my retirement.
ET
That day in Paris was HOT. It was June so I knew it wasn’t going to be cold but was much warmer than I had expected. But as you can see the sun was out! And it was beautiful. With light like that I am not sure anyone could actually take a bad picture. I am much more of a London girl, but that day was a reminder of why so many people love Paris. When she is showing off she can be very, very beautiful.
WaterGirl
@stevecrickmore: What a magical time that must have been!
I’m curious why you left?
stevecrickmore
@WaterGirl: It was. I gave conversational English lessons, and was a colporteur/ hawker of newspapers, and magazines, one an english weekly, Paris Metro, in cafes. I met loads of people, many tourists, and students from all over. The major reason I went back to North America was because I really couldn’t work legally. The Brits had most of the legitimate ESL teaching jobs because of their entry into the then Common Market. Other nationalities had to overcome too many bureaucratic hurdles, to work at ESL for example, and to marry someone that was a more serious proposition and didn`t happen, though I had my share of romance. The Paris experience definitely left an imprint on me. There is kind of a shared secret society, of those who came to personally know, as you suggest the beauty, history and magic of Paris, which writers and painters love to evoke, so there is always a constant reference, such as these photos, to refresh one’s memories.
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I love that song but I can’t hear it without immediately thinking of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, and Gary Oldman adjusting his vest as he sits down at the head of the table at the endow the movie.
opiejeanne
@ET: Beautiful pictures. Thank you so much. The first time we went to Paris we stopped in this garden for a while to watch children sail boats in the big pond. Some had brought their own boats, and some were rented at a kiosk next to the pond.
That was in May 2012, and it was very bright and hot too. I needed my sunglasses, which I had left at our rental.
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I know we do. I asked mr opiejeanne where he wanted to go this past spring when I was making plans to head to Europe, and all he said was Paris. We have been twice, stayed 10 days each time in an apartment so we could cook for ourselves if we wanted. The first time it was a tiny place on the 3rd floor in a building that dated to the 1600s and had no elevator, just around the corner from Notre Dame.
Ile de la Citie. Magical.
We never did figure out how to use the washer/dryer properly. Took us 5 hours to dry a load.