Jardin du Luxembourg

Well, we are home. I'm sitting in the living room as a quiet rain falls outside, drinking a big mug of American coffee -- always a blessing after those dainty little café crèmes on the continent. I need about 12 of those things just to stay alive.

We had a good day yesterday. Unlike Tuesday morning, when I was up and about early, I slept in -- so Dave and I left our hotel at the same time and made our way to the same cafe beneath the shady locust trees on the Rue Caulaincourt where we'd had breakfast the day before. We got a front-row table for watching street life and were amused by a guy sitting across the street having a lively conversation with himself -- until he crossed over to have a lively conversation with us. His name was Vergilio, and that was one of the few things he said that I understood, as he was from Portugal but he was speaking French and he was missing a fair number of teeth. Of course he wanted some coins and I had none on me, but he was pleasant about it.

Our train wasn't until 2:40 p.m., so we decided to go to the Jardin du Luxembourg on the Left Bank. I've spent very little time south of the river in Paris, except for the area immediately around the Eiffel Tower. So this was new grounds for exploration. I was amused to find a fancy-looking cafe near the Odeon called The Editors (above) -- editors are used to being mostly nameless, unsung figures in the background of the publishing world, so I'm glad we got our due.

Dave decided to take a seat in the park while I wandered around. The gardens, built by Marie de Medici beginning in 1612, are laid out around a central pond and formal garden overlooked by the Luxembourg Palace. I passed the sculpture above, Arthur le Duc's "Harde de cerfs écoutant le rapproché," or herd of listening deer.

Here's a video showing some more scenery, including the large formal garden, the palace, the pond, Charles-Arthur Bourgeois' sculpture L'Acteur Grec (Greek actor), and the Medici Fountain:

We left the gardens and headed for the train station, where we caught our train without incident. It was very full and it arrived in London around the same time as another Eurostar from elsewhere, so there was a bit of a mob scene trying to get off the platform and through customs, but we eventually managed.

I mentioned the train ticket prices yesterday and my surprise at how high they were. But we did choose midday trains at the height of the summer tourist season, and we bought our tickets not even a week in advance. I guess £180 per person each way, under those circumstances, isn't too terrible. I'm telling myself that, anyway.

Also, you may be wondering why we made the trip so short. Why not stay in Paris a few more days? Well, Dave is going to the states on Saturday, so we had to come back in time for him to get ready for that adventure. I'll be staying behind, no doubt missing Olga, but I'm planning to do some short trips of my own.

When we got home, Dave and I had to move all the furniture out of the dining room because I have carpet cleaners coming this morning to steam clean the carpet. Of course we're also having rain today and tomorrow, so the whole house is going to be damp. Zut alors!