MontEnchantedFairyLandsouris

When AH and I first started looking at apartments in our neighborhood, one of the big selling points (according to the Realtor) was that we would be close to a world famous park, Montsouris.  Which I discovered is, indeed, lovely and park-like, what with the grass and flower beds and what-not, but not really much to crow about.  What I did not know is that up until today, I had only been on the side of the park designated for groups of old French biddies and university students making their friends take flattering pictures of them in natural light.  I have long wondered if there was more to park to frolic in past the train bridge.  It turns out that there is, and that it's less of a "park" and more of a "magical fairy-land of enchantment."

Do I exaggerate?  Perhaps; I saw no actual fairies.   But I DID see:

.As in many Parisian public spaces, beautiful sculptures
.A carousel
.A waterfall
.PONIES.  For realz.  I don't know if they're always there or only on days when their owners know that there will be many children about who will not stop harassing their parents until mom and dad shell out for a ride around the park, but c'mon. PONIES.
.All sorts of little dogs barking at the ponies, many of them in posh little sweaters that probably cost more than my winter coat
.A playground covered in so many angelic-looking French children that I can hear the echoes from inside my hollow uterus
.A marionette theater
.A little outdoor creperie that (I think) will open when the weather gets warmer
.Birds, lots and lots of birds.  The park landscape is dominated by a large pond, and it appears to be an avian mecca.  There were, of course, the usual pigeons (which I don't really count as birds- really, they're greasy rats with wings) and, only a small step up, seagulls.  But there were also plenty of ducks, some black birds with orange beaks that I've been seeing everywhere, some black and white geese, a blue heron, and, best of all, two truly beautiful black swans (of the actual bird variety, not the crazy, cunnilingus-craving Natalie Portman variety).
          Furthering my conviction that I can be amused by just about anything, I settled on my little park bench and watched the birds for a while with all the obsessive fascination of a housewife and her soaps.  (I am kind of a housewife myself, so this is apt).  I like to imagine that the ducks sitting near the group of lounging geese were like the almost-popular kids running at the fringes of the cool clique in school.  Too good for the seagulls, but not quite cool enough to be geese.  It's OK, ducks.  The geese think they're totes awesome, but the swans would LAUGH (or bird equivalent) IN THEIR FACE if they tried to sit at their lunch table.
          Also, I saw a seagull have an epic air battle with a rook for a piece of food.  Seagull was too slow.  BURN!
.Did I mention PONIES?!

In conclusion, I don't know if MontDisneyLandsouris makes me wish I was a child again, or want a wee spawn to share my glee at watching ducks stick their butts up in the air.  As the first is, according to current scientific thinking, not really practical and the second option would yield only a diaper-filling potato in the short-term, I can only hope that they have bigger ponies next time.