A Sunday Walk in Luxembourg Gardens

All of our work and school is very much intertwined with home life, so there's not always a differentiation between the two.  I love this about our life.  It gives me what I call in my head "the Little House on the Prairie" feeling.  From my youngest days the Ingalls' family home life resonated with me as something so wholesome and good.  They worked hard together, the played together, they rested together; they had a life that really was very whole, wholly centered in one place.  And though they often shared heartache, too, they were in it together.  

As much as I love our intertwined life it doesn't always give me the feeling of the weekend.  Weekends didn't exist back in the good old days (as the Dowager Duchess of Grantham could tell us), but as much as I love the old days I'm also a child of the modern age, and I've been trying to plan at least one thing that makes the weekend feel invigorating and refreshing, a taste of the freedom of being off work and school.  

via GIPHY

So far this year that has looked like meals with friends.  This weekend K.J. had Saturday meetings, so I was hoping to go into the city a little while before church on Sunday and do something not too difficult or time consuming. 

The perfect idea appeared in my mind Sunday morning, and while the idea was a good one, Sunday morning is not the ideal time to present a new plan for the day to my preacher husband whose plans always mature over time, while mine come to me as a sudden spark of inspiration I need to act on immediately:  Let's take a walk in Luxembourg Gardens!  It's a part of the city we don't visit often, it's free, it's exercise, it's perfect!  And as an aside, isn't it where Jean Valjean walked every Sunday morning with Cosette?  A literary reference makes any outing better.

la fontaine de Médicis

Parking in Paris is easier on Sundays because it is free, though it's still not easy to find a spot.  I thought this would be K.J.'s biggest hurdle to get over, but instead it was the memories of the last time he took the kids to le jardin du Luxembourg on a hot April day after a crowded, sweaty bus ride.  The complaints of the children still lingered in his ears, but we made it work, and after we'd enjoyed a nice walk, Ella remarked, "That was a lot better in January."  Win.

It's unusual to see fountains running in the winter, but I noticed several flowing yesterday.  It is still one of our favorite things to hear K.J. tell us what the statues are saying or thinking as we pass by them.  

We walked through the park and up to the Panthéon because the ceiling of the porch is so beautiful and intricate, and you can see the tip of the Eiffel Tower as you look down the street.  I knew we wouldn't be able to see much yesterday because it was so foggy, but Ella and I like when the tops of the buildings are concealed in fog; it gives a great air of mystery.

I like how people aren't in a hurry to take down the

Christmas decorations here.

Can you spot the middle of the Eiffel Tower between the Christmas trees?

I'm really glad we made this weekend outing work.