Pelouse Keep Off the Grass

I thought I had discovered the basic difference between the French and those of us of English descent today as I explored the vibrant Jardins de Luxembourg - what a superb park (I am going to completely run out of superlatives for these places by the end of three months, I’m warning you now!), luxuriantly planted and manicured, dotted with statues and fountains and balustrades and staircases. Breathtaking.

But, the difference is our relationship to the humble garden lawn.

No matter how quaint and practical the ubiquitous green metal chairs, on such a brilliant late summer’s day, what one really wants to do is to sprawl inelegantly on the soft ground with a backpack for a pillow, wiggle one’s toes in the coolness of nature’s best picnic blanket and quite possibly just fall asleep amongst a bunch of strangers, all doing the same thing. (A nice bottle of wine and a baguette with fromage would complete the picture nicely, but I wasn’t that organised).

It seemed obvious to me that the crowds that gather on the cobblestone steps outside the Pompidou are clearly just crying out for some grass to sit on after all that sightseeing and even in the Tuileries and here in this beautiful park only green chairs and dirt as far as the eye could see.

I pondered this profound sociological insight nearly all the way around the park, feeling very sorry for the French and even sorrier for myself, as all I really wanted to do was to collapse on the ornamental lawn somewhere, until – just before I was about to leave, I found what I’d been looking for! And just in case it wasn’t clear to passers-by, it was signposted. In three languages, lest there be any misunderstanding. (It seemed to be filled with foreigners – oh wait, that’s the whole of Paris at the moment – but I’ll bet it’s known as the Avenue des Anglaises or something!)

On route to this garden nirvanah, I visited both the Eglise St Sulpice – apparently the setting for a crucial scene in The Da Vinci Code (according to the website) and certainly the crowds in the church would seem to back that up – and the less topical but more beautifully decorated church of St Germain-des-Prés. But today neither could compete with the Authorised Lawn…