Avignon is shimmering with Christmas lights – even the town hall.
I thought she looked very pretty, xv.
image – me
Yearly Archives: 2009
So Pretty…
Avignon is shimmering with Christmas lights – even the town hall.
I thought she looked very pretty, xv.
image – me
Here we go round the Place de la Concorde…
Here we go round the Place de la Concorde,
Place de la Concorde,
Place de la Concorde.
Here we go round the Place de la Concorde
on a cold and frosty evening.
(apologies to james orchard halliwell for changing his well know children’s lyrics)
The Place de la Concorde, the largest in Paris, sits on the river Seine and divides the Tuileries gardens from the Champs Elysees. In the 18th Century it was known as the Place de la Revolution with a guillotine as centrepiece where Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Robespierre and many others lost their heads.
I am thinking the ferris wheel this Christmas is a much better idea…xv
image – me
Swan Lake by Repetto…
The Repetto window in the Marais arrondissement of Paris is an unusual ode to Christmas. It is not your traditional baubles and beads or gold glitz and silver glamour decorations. Feathers, slippers and tutus are the order of the day for a ballet shop but the addition of the nesting swan made me think of Tchaikovsky’s classical ballet Swan Lake. I have always loved The Nutcracker Suite as a part of the holiday festivities but as I gazed through this window I felt that ‘she’ (for she must have been representing the most beautiful swan of all, Odette) also embodied the spirit of Christmas.
Swan Lake and the ‘happy ever after love’ between Odette and her Prince Siegfried make me think of magic and ever lasting romance. Magic and romance makes me think of Christmas. A perfect window I thought, xv.
image – me
There is no harm in asking…
St Remy de Provence
11th December, 2009
Dear Santa,
If you have a moment in your busy schedule could you please pull up the sleigh in the rue Saint-Honore in Paris. You being the all-knowing-and-make-wishes-come-true-Santa would know where that is so I won’t include directions. If the sleigh won’t fit down that quaint old rue you can always take the Metro and hop out at the Palais Royale, the Tuileries or the Pyramides stops. It is a pretty easy way to travel around Paris; the seats are quite comfortable and roomy, the service is speedy and I know that those Parisian commuters would just love to wish you bonjour and bonne fete. Perhaps you could park the reindeers in the Bois de Bologne or the Bois de Vincennes while you scoot into the city. When you arrive outside 173 rue Saint Honore you will see the cutest little boutique called Astier de Villatte and….well….what I really wanted to tell you was this…I just love everything inside that delightful paradise.
Santa, I know from past experience that you have impeccable taste and need no help whatsoever in selecting gifts. I am certain that the moment you open the wooden door and enter this ‘toy shop’ for grownups you will be amazed at the selections. I think you could save yourself a lot of time back at the North Pole if you filled some of the Santa sacks here. Imagine how happy Mrs Claus would be if you managed to finish a little earlier on Christmas Eve and Santa, think of your elves – those happy little helpers could retire to bed early.
Santa, I know so many of my friends would love a scented candle or adore to have one of Astier de Villatte’s signature porcelain cups.
The ‘chequer board’ covered paper diary with the gold edges is my favourite diary of all time and as for their perfumes and glass paper weights… I am swooning.
Santa I have my fingers crossed that you arrive in Paris safely and find your way to Astier de Villatte. Anything, any little thing at all that could find it’s way into your sack would be completely and utterly perfect.
Until Christmas morning dear Santa…
xv
images astier de villatte, rue saint honore – me
The lights are on in Paris…
When the lights wrap the Champs Elysees in a tinselly glow I know that it is Christmas. Paris in December sparkles; it is as if she has been sprinkled all over with magic dust and awakes to become a twinkling fairyland. The decorations are also up in our little village of Saint Remy de Provence and that makes me feel very festive. The fairy lights and illuminated banners are hanging from the plane trees, from the sides of the buildings and they are strung across many of the roadways. I am such a child at heart and love to drive around the streets at night or walk through the narrow alleyways and stare at them wide-eyed. I think I am subconsciously re-living a childhood tradition. Way back in my olden days my parents would drive me around the local streets so I could gaze at the Christmas lights and trimmings in our neighbourhood. As a true romantic at heart I never can seem to let go of my sentimental habits.
I often think that the French are the masters of the fairy light – every village, town and city is ablaze with twinkling lights at this time of year. From early December the country seems to scream ‘celebrate’, ‘put on your happy faces’, the holidays are here. xv
image champs elysees – me