My Travel Book - Paris - One Sunny Autumnal Day At Les Tuileries

Fall is my favorite season because I am a photographer and I love its colors, so bright and vivid even when it rains.

Belgium and Northern France have been enjoying some very exceptional weather lately. Sunny and very warm. Our own Indian summer! Very surprising but so wonderful.

Last week-end, we drove through the forest that surrounds Brussels. It was gorgeous.

Today, I was in Paris. What can you do when it is so sunny and hot in Paris? You take a walk through one of the many parks there.

I decided to go to the Tuileries Garden (Jardin des Tuileries).

The Tuileries Garden is a beautiful park. It used to be the grounds of a royal palace which was destroyed in 1871 during one of the many revolutions France has been through during her tumultuous past. The palace was right by the Louvre.

Parisians love to laze around the Tuileries whenever the sun shines. They sit wherever they feel like it on chairs so easy to move around from one spot to another. 

Children float small sailboats on the pools. This has been going on for ages. It was one of my favorite places in Paris when I was a child. 

And tourists crowd through the Jardin on their way from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde and Champs-Elysées.

Last week was FIAC time in Paris. FIAC being a grand Contemporary Art Fair. This year, they chose to exhibit works of art (sculptures) in a few parks in Paris.

They have started to remove them and I wanted to get a chance to see a few of them in situ. Contemporary art in parks just like the Middelheim in Antwerpen. (One of these days, I must write about my many trips to the Flemish Contemporary Art permanent exhibit in Antwerpen.) I love modern art.

When I got there, the Jardin was less crowded than I had thought it would be. People were mostly lounging around the pools. And there were less works of art than I expected but FIAC closed on Sunday. Today was Tuesday after all.

 

There they were, right in the middle of the big pool close to the Place de la Concorde. Susumu Shingu’s ‘Sinfonietta of Light’, moving in the wind ever so gracefully.

 Then there was something very strange called ‘The Arrow Slit’ by Nicolas Milhé... which actually people enjoyed a lot as a mirror.

The third one was very impressive, in a pool. A glimmering shell called ‘The Origin of the World’ (Cassis Madagascariensis) by Marc Quinn.

This one was very bright and crowded with children who loved to run around and inside out. It was so much fun to watch them playing around those big colorful splashes. 'Chromosaturation' by Carlos Cruz-Diez.

There were quite a few works around but the one I loved very much was right in a very small pond. One very simple sculpture called ‘Bateau’ (Boat) by Dominique Guesquière. It was so simple and so forceful that I spent a long time looking at it. The gulls loved it too.

 And then what? Quite a few other works actually. Some of them I liked. Others I did not.

After a while I focused my attention on what makes the Jardin so attractive - people. I enjoy watching people. And there were so many people around.

The Loner and the prattlers.

The sun lovers.

The cool one.

The reader who looked for peace and quiet and found them.

The friends.

And the guy who couldn’t stand to be cooped up in his office and who went out to work in Les Tuileries.

I really wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow in Paris or in Brussels but ever since Saturday, it is all about “seizing the day”... Sun shining. Beauty all around.

Let’s face it, it is bound to rain one of these days! So enjoy...

And yes, there are quite a few happy tourists in Paris!

*Good Luck, and Good Night*