Keep off the grass!

A very bizarre sight when I was in Paris recently and stumbled into Luxembourg gardens on a hot sunny day hoping to relax in the shade on the grass, and everyone was sitting on chairs around the grass rather than on it.

My friend and I kept walking in the hope of a small patch of grass hidden somewhere discreet, but then came across a patch where you were allowed to sit, and had to squeeze onto a postage-size section of greenery. The contrast between lush empty lawns and mounds of sweaty bodies was enough to put anyone off their ice-cream!