Thomas Jefferson visited our town.

Yesterday we woke up to the sun shining through our living room window, and it didn't rain for the entire day!  Sun and no rain is something to take advantage of so I made the kids come for a walk with me to and around the park.  I silenced any complaints about my choice of morning P.E. with tales of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test and how I had to stand in a line of kids waiting to see how many pull-ups I could do.  Answer:  0.  

It's about a half mile's walk from our house to the Parc de Marly, a grand and magnificent park with the remaining foundation of a chateau.  I recently learned in reading John Adams that Thomas Jefferson rode through the park (with another man's wife he was briefly infatuated with), which sheds more light on the plaque outside one of the entrances.  I found some internet speculation that Jefferson modeled some of the designs for the University of Virginia after the layout of the Marly Park.  

Jefferson was definitely a friend of France until the very end, defending the lengths the French Revolution went to against the warnings of his friend, John Adams, that the will of the people can do much evil when the will of the people is unrestrained, one reason Adams was such a proponent of putting checks and balances into the United States government.  Jefferson also turned out to be a really disloyal friend to Adams in the end, actively speaking against him behind his back when they returned to the U.S.  I'm not finished with the book yet, but I don't think Adams ever called him out on it; he seemed to be a class act.

I may have read some negative things about Thomas Jefferson recently, but there is one thing we have in common, whether it be for good or ill time will tell.