“Ceres ou L’ Éte” … the goddess of grain and agricultureAs the recent temperatures during the day have hovered in the 50’s F it’s not feeling much like arrival of summer. Walking through the streets, under cloudy gray skies, you can see Parisians huddled in leather jackets under the heat lamps of the café terrasses, pulling a drag on their cigarettes as they sip their espresso or vin rouge. A la maison, winter blankets have been pulled out of their resting places in les placards yet again, and chocolat chaude seems as viable an option as a chocolate gelato. I have been in Paris since January and the weather hasn’t varied too much from one continuous winter season. It’s then that you realize that it is a northern European climate here, not all that distant from our cousins in London. But nonetheless, I’m still smiling.
In honor of the summer solstice today, it seemed appropriate to take a promenade through les Jardin des Tuileries. Here's a little history...
Source of map: a-paris.net
After it’s humble beginnings in the Middle Ages as a tile factory, it was given a relooking by Catherine de Medici who built a palace on the grounds, le Palais des Tuileries, which is now a wing of the Louvre museum. What’s a palace without a garden to gaze upon, and so the tile factory was removed and she created a Florentine-inspired garden.
The gardens further developed as Louis XIV commissioned the landscape designer André Lenôtre to redesign the garden. When the Sun King moved his court to Versailles, the park was opened to the public for the summer solstice festival of 1667 and became Paris’ first public park.
It is a beautiful landscaped park, punctuated with statues and ponds and gorgeous gardens. It links the Louvre to la Place Concorde and Avenue Champs Elysée, and is a wonderful place for a bit of relaxing stroll, or to grab one of the green park chairs or benches and settle in for a good read with a book or some serious people watching.
There's more to come, but en attendant (in the meantime)...
Happy Summer Solstice!
7 comments:
oh really still SO cold? is this global warming? i have been in paris in april and may when it's been really hot! hope it warms up for you all soon!
I love the way you describe Paris!! So accurate and charming. And I love the new look/name of the blog:-) Can't wait to see and read more!!!
Dear Mlle Paradis: no joke, really. But the good news is that it has warmed up considerably since the solstice ... let's hope it's going to stay that way for a long while!
Dear Little Parisienne: heh, you know what it's been like in Paris too! Thanks so much for your sweet kindness. Your encouragement is very much appreciated! :)
I love these gardens and always take a stroll whenever I have the luck to be in Paris. Thank you for your lovely comment at French Essence , xv.
Dear Vicki, thanks so much for passing by and your lovely words, as well as sharing your elegant quotidien life with us on your blog...!
Beautiful Ode to Summer, ma cherie!
... and presented by the beautiful goddness herself :-) Les Jardin des Tuileries is charming - love your beautiful photos and little history notes. I want to diminish in size and jump into the picture to have a lovely promenade there :-)Heavenly place!
A bit delayed happy Summer Solstice to you too, dear Amusette! ✿◠‿◠
Dear Katrin: merci...she certainly did her job, and was having not even a
whiff of winter during her season. Please be my guest and jump in, I'm sure you know how to work such magique! Bonne journée ... ! xo
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