Jardin du Luxembourg: Smitten with Paris Gardens

Another dreary, misty day in Limoges so I'm daydreaming about sunny days in the Jardin du Luxembourg. I am always charmed by the colorful formal gardens in France. Particularly wonderful are the beds of vegetables (like purple cabbage), as appreciated for their aesthetic perfection as a rainbow of roses. When I stopped to admire some flowers, snapping photos, the dedicated gardeners even tipped their hats at us, a silent thanks for admiring their work.

Perfect swaths of green lawn... Ogle all you want, but don't touch! (Or dare spread out a blanket for sun-bathing. There are ample chairs assembled off-the-grass for your use.)

These days in Paris, folks scoot around on Vélib' bikes-- the fantastic free bicycle program that should be copied in every city worldwide. But I still swear that walking is the best way to take it all in. Wander wherever your feet take you, like a true flâneur, and you'll never know what will appear before your eyes. Like the string of clouds scooting across the sky behind the Panthéon. (Pictured)

Moments like that and I feel compelled to pluck Hemingway's dusty, ear-marked volume from the bookcase: "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."