This is the first in a series of posts about Paris’s many wonderful parks and gardens. It’s hard to know where to start but Luxembourg Gardens are definitely in the top three for us. Since the Luxembourg Palace and Gardens are one of Paris’s most popular tourist attraction, we will start here. There has been no attempt to categorize the photos by season. You will find here summer, autumn, spring and winter all mixed in, and from many, many visits over the years.
The building on the grounds is Luxembourg Palace, le Palais du Luxembourg.
The Palais du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Palace) was built in 1625 for Queen Marie de’ Medici by Salomon de Brosse. Marie was the second wife of King Henry IV. She served as regent of France after Henry IV was assassinated and while her son Louis XIII was growing up. The palace continued as a royal residence until the French Revolution when it was converted to a prison. You may wonder how “Luxembourg” entered the picture. The palace was built on a 15-acre domain with a mansion house belonging to François de Luxembourg plus some adjoining property, bringing the total to about 50 acres, its current size. The mansion became Petit Luxembourg and the palace, the Palais du Luxembourg which Marie preferred to call the Palais Medicis.
The palace and gardens had their ups and downs over the intervening centuries but eventually became the home of the French Senate when it was created in 1958 and remains so to this date. Following are some views of the exterior of the palace.
The interior of the palace is not generally open to the public since it is the working home of the French Senate. However, every now and then it is opened for tours for a limited time, We were fortunate to be there for the Journées Européennes du Patrimonie when visits were permitted. We were astonished by decor (see below).
The gardens themselves are half French and half English with a symmetrical forest with walkways and benches separating them. Many visitors only see the area around the palace which is the formal French garden with pond, walls, urns and statues. The other part of the gardens on the west and south side of the grounds are just as wonderful, especially in spring, and really not to be missed. The green metal chairs, known as the “Sénat” chairs, are a feature throughout.
You may notice that there is hardly a soul to be seen in any of the photos above. This is deliberate and can only be achieved by regularly arriving just as the park is opening.
But let’s not forget what parks are for! Parks are for PEOPLE. And Luxembourg Gardens is a very popular spot, for joggers and tennis players, local students for lunch, people who work in the area to walk though on their way to and from their office, families at weekends and on holidays and of course, tourists. In fact, the gardens can be very crowded, hence the early morning visits.
Here are some photos with people enjoying these wonderful gardens. Not the least attraction being the pond and the boats, for kids and not-kids. People come to walk, they come to hug in the snow, they come with their dogs, they come to read, to eat their lunch, to discuss things, to nap in the shade, to play, they come to sail their boats and discuss boats with other boat aficionados, they come to ride scooters with their kids, they come to draw and sketch, they come to just sit for a while and think, maybe smoke a pipe and think. It’s really a wonderful atmosphere.
There are some special features worth pointing out. First of all, from the Luxembourg Gardens you can see the Eiffel Tower and you can see the Parthenon and the view of these landmarks from the park is unusual.
The Medici Fountain,, near the rue de Vaugirard entrance to the gardens, is a lovely feature. The fountain was recently completely refurbished and restored and looks beautiful. Here you can see some photos from before the restoration and some as it now looks.
Of course, it would not be Paris or even France without food and drink. In addition to the many ice cream and coffee stands, mulled wine stands in winter, there is a very nice restaurant which used to be Le Pavillon de La Fontaine and is now La Terrasse de Madame. As its earlier name suggests, it is close by the Medici Fountain. At the other end of the park near the Musée de Luxembourg (yes, there is an art museum in the gardens with some excellent exhibitions) is an Angelina, particularly welcome on cold winter days.
Well, there you are! The Luxembourg Palace and Gardens. We’ll leave you with the hot chocolate at Angelina Even if you are exhausted from the post, it is not exhaustive. But it should give you an idea of what to find and see at Luxembourg Gardens. If you have already visited, perhaps you will find some parts that you missed or appreciate the different look at different times of the year. And if you have never visited, then a treat awaits you. I don’t think you can visit too often.
There are many images in this Journal post. Some of them are already listed in the shop and are for purchase as prints or canvases. If they are listed, you can click on them and go straight through to the listing.
However, the majority of these images have not found their way into the shop. That doesn’t mean they are not available. Any of the images in the post can be purchased as prints or canvases in the usual range of sizes. So if you would like any of the images but cannot click on them and go to a listing, please contact us by email and let us know what you would like. Screen shots work well to identify the images.
We hope you have enjoyed the tour of Luxembourg Palace and Gardens and that this post will inspire you to visit or revisit.
Please leave a comment below. We like to hear from you.
À bientôt,
The Parisian Moments Team