The Idiot frequently goes on long walkabouts in Paris that usually include a stroll through the 44-hecatares (110 acres) Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where everyone from Abelard and Heloise to Jim Morrison are interred, and the Luxembourg Gardens.
He recently kicked off his hike with a stroll around the perimeter of the Luxembourg Gardens that also took him to his favorite fountain and provided a look at traditional sites in the park.
The romantic Medici Fountain features the Cyclops and a pair of lovers.
A view of the French Senat from one end of the Luxembourg Gardens.
A view of the Luxembourg Gardens from the French Senat.
A statue of the Dancing Faun in the Luxembourg Gardens.
But it’s when he gets up close and personal with a number of literate personalities in the Luxembourg Gardens that the walk becomes interesting. Here are just a few historic personalities with whom he spoke.
He was delighted to spend some time with French novelist George Sand who wrote “There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.”
He bantered with Baudlaire who told him that “I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no melancholy.”
He saluted Stendhal who, in a very philosophic mood, said “In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.”
Naturally The Idiot frequently walks in other parts of the French capital to meet a variety of historic personalities, like Montaigne near the Sorbonne, d’Aguesseau at the Palais Bourbon and George Washington in the distant Place Des Etats Unis.
The Idiot’s favorite memory of the statue of Montaigne near the Sorbonne dates from the mid-1980s when he asked author Norman Mailer to pose for a picture with Montaigne. “It would be vainglorious for me to stand in the presence of Montaigne,” Mailer said.
Voltaire said Henri Francois d’Aguesseau, still sitting proudly in front of the Palais Bourbon where the French National Assembly meets, was “the most learned magistrate France ever possessed.”
Lafayette and George Washington ham it up in the Place des Etats-Unis.
The Idiot also runs into contemporaries during his walk and was even caught going to the bathroom before the end of his 25-kilometer saunter.
Running into Philippe Giraud on a bridge over the Seine.
Caught using a Uritrottoir, one of the new and controversial sidewalk urinals in Paris, in the midst of a long walk about town.
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