Americans in Paris: Nathaniel Parker Willis

It is March and the weather has all the characteristics of New England May. The last two or three days have been deliciously spring-like, clear, sunny, and warm. The gardens of the Tuileries are crowded. The chairs beneath the terraces are filled by the old men reading gazettes, mothers and nurses watching children at play, and every few steps, circles of whole families sitting and sewing, or conversing, as unconcernedly as at home.

From Pencillings by the Way in Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology, Adam Gopnik, editor (New York: The Library of America, 2004), p. 64.