Sunday, March 29, 2009

Pretty Parisian Peonies (or: "things I like about Paris")


{originally uploaded by maralina}

One thing I love about living in Paris is the flower markets. Having lived in a perpetually drought-stricken country town for much of my life, fresh flowers have always seemed to me like the most beautiful of luxuries. How wonderful, then, to be able to buy (cheap!) fresh flowers at a moment's notice! Every quartier in Paris has at least one florist - and then there are the flower markets, brimming over with colourful blooms at all times of the year.


{originally uploaded by victoria}

After my rather disastrous day yesterday, I decided that heading out to find some flowers today would be a sure-fire way of rekindling my passion for parisian living. And I wasn't disappointed - after much indecision, I settled on these beautiful peonies. (I'd been secretly coveting fresh peonies ever since Jo blogged about their significance in feng shui - not that I would ever admit to believing in that kind of thing. But hey, can't hurt, right?)

peonycollage

Ce sont trĂ©s jolies, n'est-ce pas? 

Happy weekend-ing.

Alice x

3 comments:

  1. They're beautiful! But (in a whisper) they're not peonies, they're ranunculus. Which is a relation of the anemone. I love ranunculus and this time of year which is about the only time they're around. You've reminded me that I really must look for a bunch, straight away!

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  2. on no! and you would know, too! the funny thing is, I even checked in my french dictionary before I posted, because the sign at the florist said "pivoine" and I didn't know what it meant. So I looked it up and it said peonies, and I got all excited (mostly for the alliteration!) - pretty parisian ranunculus doesn't sound nearly as nice. they're still pretty, though, whatever they are, so i guess that's the main thing :)

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  3. They're often used as mini peony replacements in bouquets as they're so similar (but peonies are a lot bigger) so maybe the name gets lost in translation a bit!

    Your photos of them are lovely, I meant to say in my first comment!

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