Luxembourg Gardens

Marie de' Medici, the Florentine-born widow of King Henri IV, commissioned both the Luxembourg Palace and its surrounding garden after her husband's assassination in 1610, hoping to recreate something of the Boboli Gardens she remembered from her Florentine childhood on this stretch of the Left Bank. Architect Salomon de Brosse designed the palace, completed around 1631, while the grounds were laid out in a formal French style around a central octagonal basin.

The gardens were later expanded and softened under the 19th-century reign of Louis-Philippe, when English-style groves were added alongside the original geometric parterres. The palace itself now houses the French Senate, making the Luxembourg Gardens one of the few green spaces in Paris still attached to a working seat of government — complete with a permanent police presence that helps keep the grounds immaculately maintained to this day.

Generations of Parisian children have rented small wooden sailboats to push across the octagonal pond with long wooden poles, a tradition that dates back well over a century and still draws a small crowd on sunny afternoons. Elsewhere in the garden, fixed tables host chess players locked in concentration while nearby gravel courts fill with pétanque games most days of the week.

More than a hundred statues punctuate the tree-lined paths, including a scaled-down replica of the Statue of Liberty and the atmospheric, grotto-like Medici Fountain. The gardens have also long drawn writers: Ernest Hemingway and Jean-Paul Sartre both found inspiration walking these allées, and the gardens remain a favourite lunch-break refuge for students from the nearby Sorbonne.

The Jardin du Luxembourg is free to enter, opening around 7:30am and closing at dusk, with hours that shift with the seasons — check the posted times if you're planning an evening visit. Its Left Bank location, a short walk from the Sorbonne and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, makes it a natural stop for lunch or a break between museums.

Because the garden borders a functioning government building, expect a visible police presence and occasional restricted areas near the Senate itself, though this rarely affects the public parts of the garden. Bring a coin or two if you'd like to rent a chess set or a toy sailboat, and aim for a fine afternoon if you want to see the pond at its liveliest.