Flower Faker

On my way to do a glamorous errand, buying a toilet seat from Leroy Merlin, the French version of Home Depot, I found this lovely window box with cascading vines. As I started to photograph it, something was off but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I finally realized the flowers and vines were fake. The give away was the sunflowers, which usually don’t bloom till later in the season. If you want to see this fakeout, it’s at 151 rue St. Martin near the Pompidou Centre.

You're nothing but a big faker

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Comments

[Karen Lee Kimbrough]

My grandmother in Thibodaux, Louisiana who was from very French stock, did the same thing. She had a big house on Canal Street with much shrubbery around it. But she wanted flowers so she bought multicolored fake ones from the dime store and tied them into the shrubbery. Must be a French thing!

[Cheryl]

Bonjour Richard,

I'm a designer and interior architect - a great fan of yours - and I greatly enjoy your daily missives from my beloved Paris. Absolutely hope to meet you for a short tour the next time I'm in your town (maybe early November?).

I particularly smiled at the fake flowers in your shot today, but have to recoil with the likely reality that those vinyl vines belong to an American. As I hold the French in a position of purity perhaps too aesthetically vaulted, I can only make an educated guess that some ex-pat matron from Atlanta felt the need to enliven that balcony. Ah well ..... it is a pretty one none the less. My first instinct would have been to photograph it myself.

Thanks for your stories and "eye". Each morning your mail makes me feel a little closer (and long a little longer) to my future life in Paris.

Warmest and best regards - Bien amicalement,

Cheryl