I’ve been rediscovering Paris. It’s almost a different place to what I left at the end of August. There are more shops open, for sure, the food looks better, the people are better dressed, all the Christmas lights give it a charm all of it’s own. I don’t know what it is, but I would tend to say it’s prettier than the summer time. Whatever it is, I’m warming to Paris.

This afternoon I went on a tour of florists in the 1st & 2nd arrondisements. I was looking for Holly. I bought some on the weekend, in fact we split a bunch with an American we met on the street to be exact (that’s a whole other story), because we didn’t think we’d need the whole bunch. I used a bit to decorate the individual cake bags that I packaged my Christmas cakes in, I made a display for our front door, and I’ve kept a few branches for emergencies, even though they’re the sad leftover ones. I was on a mission because our neighbours expressed some interest in having some for a display on their front door, and since they are the best neighbours in the world (another story) I went out of my way today to try and track some down.

Apparently it’s too early for ‘houx’. Vous etes trop tôt madame, peut-être la semaine prochaine…. one after another after another. I don’t know how come we managed to find some Saturday but today no-one’s selling. It’s too early. Perhaps next week. What I did learn on my travels was that we have about 25 florists within about a 6 block radius from our house. And most of them are gorgeous. Some of them are spectacular. One was absolutely amazing.

I had a flower ‘habit’ before. I think it’s just about to get worse….