Seasonal change
Tony Milne from Rough Milne Mitchell wrote this latest column on a recent trip to Paris, where he enjoyed the magnificence of some of the city’s most famous parks.
We are fortunate to be travelling and are thoroughly enjoying the briskness of a European winter. Temperatures on either side of zero stimulate the senses, and one feels very much alive.
Given the time of the year, the parks and urban spaces feature trees bereft of leaves. Even without leaves, the trees forming allées and bosques stand statuesque, shaping, manipulating and defining movement, views and use.
Grand, alluring and majestic were the Jardin des Tuileries and Le Jardin du Luxembourg. Both, a fulcrum for daily life for so many for such a long time. Irrespective of season, the pores of these parks seep history. The first, centrally located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde, the second was originally on the edge, however now very much contributing to the grain of the inner city.
Within these ‘gardens’, the many trees and hedgerows strongly frame daily life. On the park benches, the grass swards, the hoggin paths, the pétanque piste and oddly enough, around the water features (empty for winter), there is a lot of life.
Mid-winter bonhomie fills the spaces of these parks. At this time of the year, a lovely surprise. At Le Jardin du Luxembourg, the good-heartedness is disrupted only by the cacophony of police whistles signalling gate-closing time at dusk. Young lovers, families and the aged are all hurried along. While some linger, others are more compliant. I certainly am.
I imagine the sounds of summer fun and life, trees in leaf, resplendent with seasonal colours, the water features soothing and offering respite on a hot summer’s day.
In Paris, I also visit Parc de Villette, a park inspired by the post-modernist architectural ideas of deconstructivism. Unsure I am that this is understood by the everyday user. However, the underlying cross-axial arrangement of a canal and wide promenade, and 26 metal follies that are painted bright red and laid out on a grid engage the user.
A park a little rough around the edges and gritty in places that invites discovery and surprise. In my case, a girl and her goat seeking solace and solitude in the early morning sun. The interruption by a guy running, perspiring and seeking a photo she possibly was not expecting. A surprise for us both. Beauty and grittiness juxtaposed, a park I found thoroughly absorbing for very different reasons than the first two.
Colourful autumnal change is still a little way off. I am glad, though, that I sought out these spaces in their nakedness of winter. Both the historic and modern settings evoke a strong response, a reminder of the wonder of the seasons.
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