Postcard: Medici Fountain, Paris

I am totally enthralled by this postcard, dated on the reverse from 1939. Showing the Medici Fountain, one of my favorite spots in Paris, this picture shows it on a cold, autumnal day where the sky is overcast and the leaves are turning. It's so moody and romantic - especially for a spot that's already so moody and romantic. It's also kind of gothic in this view, like something you'd find in Miss Havisham's garden.

Since the Medici Fountain is located in the Jardin du Luxembourg, I used to come here before my classes at the Sorbonne. It was a great spot to read, write some notes home, or to just have a quiet moment during the day. Like every Parisian park, it has a smattering of famous green public chairs along the length of the pool, letting people sit and enjoy to their reflective heart's content.

The site is a bit over-wrought though: there's the mythic Auguste Ottin sculpture of the cyclops Polyphemus looking in on a lazy, lustful duo of Acis & Galatea, plus the endless array of urn, alcoves, and arches. It's a lot to take in when you catch your first look. While the actual fountain was built by Marie de Medicis in the 17th Century, it had fallen into ruin by the late 18th Century, prompting Napoleon Bonaparte to have it restored by Jean Chalgrin, the architect of the Arc de Triomphe. Its site in the park and modern adornments, including the Ottin sculpture, were created in the mid-19th Century. So it's very much a product of the high Romantic era. Over time, with neglect and a somewhat out-of-the-way locale, the spot has achieved that artful bit of decreptitude that rich English families used to seek out in an effort to show an affinity with Ruskin. It seems to be altogether untouched and forgotten (intentionally or unintentionally), which makes it a living moment of irony in a city with rather sophisticated artistic leanings. 

It's kind of funny - this big, hulking, opulent bit of garden waterworks with such an air of romance - I always expect to see some nymphs appear from the water and get chased by Polyphemus. But either way, it's a pure pleasure.