Parc Montsourris Magic

Any of you who have visited my web site have probably noticed that there was a time when I aspired to have written some books that people might have read.

But with few exceptions, none have.

But it was fun trying.

And it kept me off the streets for extended periods which was probably good.

One of the books, A Curious Confluence came about because of some magical imaginings – and maybe actually magical experiences – in a place that for me, to overuse the word, is MAGICAL.

That place is Parc Montsourris.

Part of its magic, I suppose, is the route I take to get there.

Depending on where my apartment is I take my favorite route to Le Jardin de Luxembourg.

After all the watching of the kids sail their boats in the fountain in front of Le Senate, and – if I have some stale bread – feeding some of the flocks of terns, and after being dazzled by the geometric trimming of the rows of chestnut trees, and after all that other stuff that it is impossible not to get caught up in when in The Garden, I exit at the opposite end of Le Jardin from Le Senate.

That takes me through an unnamed esplanade and through the memorial to Les Grandes Explorateurs  and down past Le Clos de Lilas and the observatory and the entrance to the catacombs and down Avenue Rene Coty – with its wonderful lamp posts and trees and plantings and occasional homeless tents to, at last, the entrance to Parc Montsourris.

I took that walk on Sunday.

Here are some images from along the way, starting in Luxembourg Gardens.

The last picture is of a tower on the highest point in Le Parc.

That tower is the imagined – hallucinated peut être – location of The Giant Oak in Confluence.