25 November 2014

Chez le fleuriste

Most of the florist shops in Paris devote the majority of their display to chrysanthemums in late October. Mums are the flowers people set out in graveyards in France at this time of year, to honor the dead on the Toussaint (All Saints' Day) holiday. In fact, mums are not a flower you would give as a gift to anybody in France, because they are so closely associated with death and graveyards.



This fleuriste is on the Boulevard Henri IV at the corner of the Rue des Célestins, caddy-cornered from the Café Sully, in the Arsénal neighborhood of Paris. It's called Carrément Fleurs — "squarely" or definitely flowers. Florist's shops like this one dot the whole city.


Right around the corner is this over-the-top building façade, in the Spanish style, from what I've read. It's called the Hôtel Fieubet and dates back to the 1670s. Nowadays it's occupied by a private school (Ecole Massillon).



Finally, a view from farther downriver of the area shown in the photos above and in yesterday's post. This is the Pont Marie that links the Right Bank to the Ile Saint-Louis. It was built in the 1600s, at the time when the Ile Saint-Louis was being developed as a residential neighborhood, and is named for the architect who designed and built it, Christophe Marie.

6 comments:

  1. nice pecs on those dudes at the school door!

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  2. I like the door a lot. Do you know what in particular makes it Spanish? Not that I couldn't google that myself, but apparently you've already done that, so I'll turn to you before I google.

    Typing the word "google" reminds me of one of the Norman videos, "Maintenant j'ai google." The guy is so funny. I probably only understand about 10% of what he says, unless the video is subtitled. Might be fun for Judy's students.

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    1. Hi Carolyn, I just re-read some paragraphs about that building, which is the Hôtel Fieubet. It was acquired by the Comte de Lafayette, evidently, in the mid-1800s and the current façade dates only from the 19th century. It's in the "neo-baroque Spanish style," but I don't any more than that.

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  3. We've seen a similar facade from memory in Frejus down south. Very ornate.The flowers remind us we'll be back to spring into summer in Melbourne in two weeks.

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