One of my very favorite places to visit while in Paris would be the Jardins du Luxembourg.
Back in the summer of 1998, my brother managed to obtain tickets for the semifinal of the World Cup. As it turned out, France qualified for that particular semifinal, where they would meet Croatia in what turned out to be one of the most exciting games of the entire tournament. It also turned out that France would go on to win not only that contest to qualify for their first ever World Cup Final, but they would beat Brazil once in the final; too.
Before all of that, my brother offered me one of the tickets; to go together. Despite not having been to France in nine years - or perhaps indeed because of that fact - I jumped on the opportunity. Indeed, I largely built an entire trip on the World Cup semifinal. Then again; how often does that kind of opportunity arise?
The more I thought about the upcoming trip, the more excited I got. My brother and I used to go for months long vacations in France as children; visiting and staying with family. Why not have one last really long visit/ vacation there? A part of me knew that this would be the last chance for such a thing. I was in college and still quite young at 23. If there was a time to do it, this was it.
At first; I thought four weeks would be great; But then I thought, why not five weeks? And then, right at the end; I opted for six weeks. Six weeks in Paris; getting reacclimated with my French culture would be great. Finally, I went ahead and got round-trip tickets.
Six weeks is a long time. And sure enough, it was indeed the last chance (at least for a long, long time) to take a trip of such duration. It has been nearly thirty years since, and I still have not come close to a vacation of that length since. Sensing that then, and now knowing that I was on to something, I am glad to have taken the six weeks.
Why not reward myself? That was a summer of change for me. I graduated from Bergen Community College and was transferring to Rutgers. While working throughout the autumn, winter, spring, and early summer, I had actually managed decent financial practices, lowering my debts while managing to save some money. Yeah, six weeks sounded like a good reward.
Here is the thing, though. Six weeks in Paris - or anywhere, really - can get expensive. While I had indeed managed to put aside what seemed to me a really good amount of money; I now know that it was still not nearly enough.
Long story short, my money ran extremely short. By the last few weeks, I was running up debts on my credit cards. Effectively; I undid in just a few weeks the financial situation I had worked so hard to improve and correct in the first place.
It forced me to learn to live on the cheap in the big city. I was still visiting places, but doing so much more cautiously. Trying to maximize my experiences without maximizing my expenses, as it were.
At that point in my life, I had begun to rediscover reading for fun. I even remember the books which I brought with me for that France trip; They included Wizard and Glass by Stephen King and at least one of the Lord of the Rings books by J.R R. Tolkien.
Of course, Paris (and France ,ore generally) has a reputation for being expensive, even elitist. Perhaps on some level, I also had been influenced by this seemingly popular impression of Paris as almost prohibitively expensive. But being there for as long as I was, and being short on money, forced me to find ways to live on the cheap. And I found that, in fact; this can be done, especially if you are careful. I learned that you can enjoy Paris without spending excessive money. You can have a good time doing things while keeping expenses down.
Don't get me wrong: Paris can still be exclusive and prohibitively expensive; if that is what you want and:or are looking for. Indeed, you can spend a small fortune in no time doing the things that people often associate with Paris, strolling up and down the Champs-Élysées and other exclusive districts, shopping at expensive boutiques, eating at elite, expensive restaurants and staying at the finest hotels at premium locations. If you have the budget for it, that experience can indeed be yours.
But the reality is that most of us cannot afford to live like that. I was and still am no exception. That was never a part of my experiences in Paris, either as a child, or on that particular trip. Or now, for tat matter.
Being forced to live on the cheap allowed me to be creative. I learned to enjoy Paris without spending a fortune. Hell, sometimes without spending any money at all. All it took was a little imagination.
All I needed was my pass for the Metro to get around (and the longer you buy one for, the cheaper they tend to be, of course). That, plus the amount of money required to be able to get something cheap to eat.
For example, I would buy a sandwich from a street vendor and go sit by the banks of the River Seine, eating lunch while also enjoying a magnificent view that did not exceed the cost of the sandwich itself. You can have a great experience, and it requires little to no significant amount of money or resources.
Some of my very favorite activities wound up being going to some of the famous gqrdens of Paris, especially the Tuileries (in front of the Louvre and extending to the Place de la Concord and the Champs-Élysées, and the Jardins du Luxembourg. As it turned out, the Jardins du Luxembourg wound up being my favorite place to hang out for hours.
To enter the Jardins du Luxembourg is completely free. It is a magnificent place, full of beauty and charm. I almost feel that it should be viewed as a must for any visit to Paris. But it also has the not inconsiderable advantage of being affordable, because it costs nothing to enter or enjoy. You just have to get there.
There I would sit; for hours and hours. I brought my books and would just read. If I felt like stretching my legs, I would pack up my stuff and then walk around, enjoying the sites and sounds of a beautiful public park. When I got hungry, I would leave the gardens, but often did not go far. Nor did I have to. There were some cheap places to find food, and so then I ate. Often times, I would return to the Luxembourg and enjoy eating at the park itself; again with a world class view.
It was not always the Luxembourg, or even gardens. Sometimes I would visit other parts of the city. Generally speaking, though, the gardens were my favorite spot to frequent.
In the end, I spent many hours in the gardens of Paris, especially the Luxembourg and Tuileries. But the Jardins du Luxembourg became my de facto favotie spot to go and enjoy. I still recall fondly the seemingly endless hours sitting and reading my books and taking in the atmosphere and sites of the gardens.
Since then, I have visited the gardens of Paris on other trips. But these trips are not six weeks in length. In other words, I often do not have quite the luxury of time that I did for that 1998 trip.
However, for the first time since that 1998 trip, I gave myself some hours to sit and simply enjoy the Jardins du Luxembourg last Friday. It was just like those old times in some ways. Life changes everything. Yet; there zwas almost a sense that this rule did not apply for the Jqrdins du Luxembourg. People still went there to enjoy the views and relax, just as they always had done back then. For a little while, it almost felt qs if nothing had changed.
After first visiting the Pere Lachaise cemetery and then the Pantheon, I decided to spend the rest of Friday afternoon and evening unwinding at the Jardins du Luxembourg.
So I bought a couple of drinks and just relaxed with some books.
And I allowed the hours to float away.
Granted, I would only be in Paris for a matter of a few days, before leaving for Dijon to visit family.
Still, I allowed myself to relax and enjoy those hours just the way that I used to do. Relaxing, enjoying life and watching the world go by all around you is an important part of the Paris experience, in my opinion. I suspect that it is one of the things that people love best about Paris.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon and evening.
It reminded me of past trips. Particularly the 1998 trip, when I visited my brother, who lived in Paris at the time.
Below are some pictures from my most recent visit to the Jardins du Luxembourg on Friday:
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