Sugar Gets Around: Jardin du Luxembourg

It wasn't long after we hit town in September that we started looking for neighborhoods with good spaces to walk dogs. Turns out, Paris parks are pretty dog-unfriendly.

One exception is the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th Arrondissement. Marie de Medici, widow of Henri IV and mother of Louis XIII, added these gardens to her Palais du Luxembourg in 1612--part of which is now given over to dogs and their walkers (tourists and other Parisiens appear to be welcome as well).

Le Palais du Luxembourg. Fit for a dog.

Disturbingly, like at Ranelagh, the garden depicts yet another act of classical savagery. At la fontaine Médicis, a sculpture shows the giant cyclops Polyphemus moments before descending on lovers Acis and Galatea and crushing the former with a rock.

Polyphemus, hanging junk and all, moments before his jealous rampage. Not fit for a dog.

It's actually a grand and beautiful sculpture in bronze, stone, and marble. And if you bear any resentment against Polyphemus for destroying the lovers in a murderous rampage, take heart: when you look at the sculpture from the right vantage point, his junk is hanging out. Feel free to point at it and make childish jokes.

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