The Luxembourg Gardens have long been one of the most-beloved places for Parisians to relax and enjoy life. And for good reason! No trip to Paris is complete without a stroll through the gardens.

While entering the gates, you get a collective sense of all those who have walked the gardens before you. Like a young Ernest Hemingway, who used to stay behind after closing to hunt pigeons with a homemade slingshot to feed his family between paychecks.

And just as quickly, you are brought back to the here and now as you approach the Grand Basin and you see all of the children, with their sticks in hand, happily navigating their wooden sailboats across the small pond.

Life is good.

This photograph was captured with a Nikon D90.