French Dog Park

Our preferred dog park is the Luxembourg Gardens. 

Dogs are allowed to go in about 1/6 of the garden.  It's not the nicest part of the garden, not many flowers, not much grass.  A lot of dust at this time of year.  A large area has old horse chestnut trees that provide a beautiful green canopy in the Spring and Summer.  In the Fall, they provide mounds of dead, brown, fallen leaves that the dogs love to sniff, jump in, roll in and play.  Dogs walk home from the garden with dead leaves hanging from their mouths, bellies, ears, feet.  Once in awhile, there is a dead bird that can be sniffed by all the dogs before it is cleaned up by one of the gardeners.

There are guards that patrol all areas of the garden.  They don't have much power, they don't have guns, but they have whistles.   There is a little grass in the dog area.  But neither dogs nor people are allowed to step on the grass.  It's really hard to keep a dog off a patch of grass.  If the dog takes one step onto the grass, there is an immediate and persistent sound -- the whistle blowing from a distance by one of the guards. 

If you break a rule, you can get a ticket and will have to pay a fine.  Some of the guards are relaxed and lenient.  A few are filled with importance at the sound of their whistle.  These guys also seem to have eyes in the back of their head.  Whistle blowing, I've got to quickly think up an excuse, in French, when he approaches to tell me that dogs are not allowed on the grass.  He never believes my story, but I've been spared the ticket so far.

Imagine, you can't go on the grass!  It's just not fair.