July 8 - Les petits bateaux

Seraut is Alive and Well at Luxembourg Gardens

Paris can be so sophisticated. So modern. So chic. 

And so old fashioned.

Close your eyes. 

Hear Sondheim's 'Sunday in the Park with George'. 

See Seraut's 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'.

Open your eyes. 

Surprise, it is Luxembourg Gardens on a Sunday of a Parisian summer day, here and now. The clothes are more modern, the ankles and more are bared, baseball caps replace parasols except for a few Asian women but the feeling is the same. People strolling slowly, taking in the flowering meticulous gardens, lazing beneath the squarely trimmed rows of trees, reading, picnicking, napping.  You can almost see bowlers on men and ruffled skirts on women. 

There is a large fountain and a nice breeze.  And little boys are sailing wooden toy boats, genuinely enthralled by following their boat all around, nudging it with a stick when it returns to the edge.  The vendor rents boats, 3Euro for 30 minutes. Each boat has a different country's flag making it easy for even the three year old to find theirs in the fleet of 20. 

There is no yelling, no running, no pretending the sticks are swords. No one is jumping in the water. There are no gimmicky souvenirs to buy, no cotton candy to eat....just adorable little boys and girls having an old fashioned Sunday in the park, how refreshing.

AND - Many of the little boys grow up to be big boys who STILL love to sail their bigger boats.....