Secret gardens

About half an hour outside of Paris is Parc de Sceaux.

This would have to be one of the hidden gems of Paris.
It is an enormous and well manicured park that displays all the regal bearing of its even larger and more famous relative at Versailles.
However, unlike Versailles, the purpose of this lovely park isn't to recapture the lost glory of the Ancien Regime for precious tourist shekels.

Instead, this park exists to be what it was originally intended for. To be an open space where people can walk and sit whilst surrounded by the beautifully kept grounds.
On a cool, but sunny day, I saw this park fulfilling its purpose.

Families were out with their children, people were jogging, whilst others were just laying around on the grass gazing up at the sky.
When I thought of Paris and France, this is the type of image I had in my mind. It wasn't of enormous city scenes or of busy cafes, it was of parks like this. I imagined parks such as this. Where I could walk through while the wind blew and the leaves fell.