Catherine de Medicis built the Luxembourg Palace along the lines of the Palazzo Pitti, and the garden, while classically French, is based on the Boboli gardens in Florence. Various additions were made to the park since the first stone was laid, notably two fountains: the Fontaine de Medicis, in the northwest corner, installed in 1624, and the Fontaine de L’Observatoire in 1873, designed by Davioud, who also created the fountain on the Place Saint Michel.

The park is one of the most popular in Paris, with tennis courts, pony rides, and sailboat models to rent at the Grand Bassin. At any time during the summer, competition is intense for the metal chairs scattered about on the sunny grounds. Petanque players clack away amid the chestnut trees, and lovers hide in the shadows around the Fontaine de Medicis. Picnickers gather around the 1890 monument to the great 19th century artist Eugène Delacroix (who, among other things, painted a chapel in the nearby church of Saint-Sulpice). In this park, unencumbered by traffic, pollution and noise, Parisians do something they rarely do anywhere else, or indeed, at all: they relax.

On the Rue D’Assas, just west of the park is the Musée Branly, which houses one of Paris' lesser known collections. It honors the creator of the electric wave detector used by luminaries like Marconi to invent wireless communications. South, just west of the Avenue de L’Observatoire, is another campus of the Université de Paris V, just across from the Law school. The Ecole des Mines, France’s elite polytechnical school, occupies the south east corner of the Jardin du Luxembourg on the Boulevard Saint Michel.

At the extreme southern end of the quartier Luxembourg is Port Royal, where the Boulevard Montparnasse becomes the Boulevard Port Royal. It is here that Hemingway spent many hours in intense debate at the famous Closerie des Lilas, a beautiful Belle Epoque restaurant. To the east across the square, at the tip of the sculpture-filled Avenue de L’Observatoire is the Jardin Marco Polo, built on the edge of the old Chateau de Vauvert. During the Middle-Ages, this castle was abandoned after it was said to be inhabited by the devil. From this comes the expression “Vauvert can go to hell!”.

This is a large neighborhood, a bit tough to get by Métro without good walking shoes, but taxis are usually in abundance.