Aux Printemps à Paris!

Spring is springing. Yeah!

Paris goes from cold to hot in a flash — we’ve seen signs of spring in the bright sun, blue skies and warm air over the last few days.

The closets are getting a shift of stock replacing the blacks and grays for yellows, reds and blues. The window boxes –full of dead geraniums — are about to get a whole new look as of Saturday, when the annual trek to the nurseries (along Quai de la Mégisserie) is scheduled to pick out new bright leafy plants. Friends and family have started to descend on the city and guests are filling the vacation apartments. Exhibitions are opening up all over town (visit Paris Update for a great list of what’s going on) and the shops are filling their display windows with colorful clothing (my favorite is Nina Kendosa for big bargains and bright colors — 87 rue Mouffetard, 46 rue des Abbesses and 31 rue de Turenne). The cafés are putting their tables out on the sidewalks without the heaters and clear plastic protective walls.

Yep, spring is springing. And aren’t we glad?

Daylight savings time changed Stateside last Sunday, March 11th, but it doesn’t change here until Sunday, March 25th, so for two weeks, there is an hour closer in time between us. Even so, sunset in Paris today is scheduled to be at 6:55 p.m. and in New York at 7:02 p.m. and Los Angeles at 7 p.m….so when we’ve jumped ahead one hour, we’ll still have a lot more daylight than you New Yorkers or Angelenos. Ha!

That’s because Paris is on the same latitude as Newfoundland, so on the longest day of the year — summer solstice, June 21st — we’ll be partying at Fête de la Musique until sundown at 9:58 p.m. while New Yorkers will be turning on their street lights at 8:31 p.m….a full 1.5 hours earlier. We Parisians just love our late summer nights on the terraces.

The terrace at “La Paris Plage” is getting a new bank of fuchsia-colored geraniums this weekend, too, to spruce up its roof-top terrace. You may recall this apartment was originally named for the town in the south that was made famous by its resident, Brigitte Bardot — “Le Saint-Tropez” — but it recently underwent a face-lift and a change of personality. We added 10cm of phonic insulation to the wall shared with the neighbors, and at the same time changed the scene on the wall to a painting by artist Pascal Amblard of La Paris Plage…the scene along the Seine on a hot Summer’s night…one of those long languid Paris evenings that go on well past sundown.

Meanwhile, we will take in the cooler days of Spring, enjoy the flowers blossoming and the bright green leaves popping out on all the forlorn trees, smell the aromas from the outdoor cafés and know that Summer is well on its way.

A la prochaine…

Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris

Respond to Adrian

P.S. Yesterday at Parler Paris Après Midi, Bernadette Martin, of Visibility Branding, LLC, spoke to an attentive group of Parler Paris readers about “Fusing Personal Branding and Storytelling.” Learn all about it and see the photos by visiting Parler Paris Après Midi Then, plan on coming to our next gathering on April 10th when Kristin Shannon and Antonio Meza of PSI Communications teaches us how to “Make friends with your multiple minds!”

P.P.S. Don’t miss Parler Parlor’s 14th Anniversary Pizza Party + Birthday Cake + Drinks! Saturday, March 31St, 11 a.m. at Lutèce Langue
23, boulevard de Sébastopol. Come for conversation then stay for lunch! And note: lunch is 10€ per person or FREE when you register for the SPECIAL OFFERING of a 14-SESSION CARD FOR ONLY 100 euros that day! (Normally 10 sessions for 85 euros.) Party is open to everyone. First time is free! Visit Parler Parlor for more information.