The Luxembourg Gardens, which sits almost a kilometre south the Ile de France, are one of Paris' most popular parks. Students and senators, tourists and locals – all make a bee-line for this green square in the heart of the Latin Quarter, and for good reason. In a city spoilt with formal gardens and parks, this is one that has something for everyone. Tennis courts, puppet shows, pony rides and a boules court are all tucked into its formal quadrangles. It has greenhouses, a restaurant and even its own small art museum – the Musée du Luxembourg. But this most French of open spaces owes its existence to an Italian – Marie de Medici.
She was the eldest daughter of the powerful Medici family who ruled Tuscany in the 16th century. Marie came to Paris after she married King Henri IV. When he died, she pined for the Florentine gardens of her home in the Pitti Palace. So she had an Italian-style garden built in the grounds of the Palais du Luxembourg, which she also rebuilt in 1612. 2,000 elms were planted and an elaborate water feature – the Medici Fountain – made the centrepiece of the new garden. This still gushes with water even now, four centuries later.
The Gardens had a French make-over in the intervening years, and still have examples of the French parterre style – with their clipped hedges and gravel paths tracing out intricate patterns – near the Musée du Luxembourg. But mostly now the Gardens are given over to trees and open lawns, and their less formally arranged forms of relaxing students, office workers and tourists, especially when the sun comes out. If you join them to sit and watch Paris come-and-go, you might also indulge your musical sensibilities. Regular performances of music grace its bandstand.
There are also traditional open-air marionette shows, the guignols, which hold a peculiar fascination for kids and adults alike. Children will also love the chance to sail a model boat on its octagonal basin, or to ride on its carousel – all within sight of the country's Senate, which is housed in the overlooking Palais du Luxembourg. That frisson between the formal world of politics and the play of its children is very Parisian. And one of the things that makes the Luxembourg Gardens such a delight to visit, play and stay.
