The immeasurable beauty of Paris breathes through so many facets of the city, but none more bountiful than the breathtaking blossoms decorating the abundance of French gardens at every turn. Roses are red, violets are blue – Paris and your plethora of pretty petals, I do love you….

I am no stranger to the City of Light’s charms, but every time we meet I am met with the same delight of discovering something new. I first fell in love with Paris when I traveled to the city as a model all of sixteen years old. My eyes could hardly handle all the beauty I encountered on that first trip from street side crepes to the labyrinth of shadowy streets paved in old world charm. As I wandered around arrondissements near and far, I became besotted by the beauty of all the flowers that lined the ancient city’s jardines.

Sure, I had seen my fair share of flowers until my first encounter with French flora – but there’s something different about the petals that proliferate in Paris. Could it be chalked up to the splendor of the surrounding sculptures and statues that watch their beauty bloom year after year, ever watchful guardians who maintain a perfect perspective for what makes French flowers thrive? Or is the secret to these Parisian petals’ prettiness instead owed to the famous French diet, perhaps? Great amounts of time and countless books have been devoted to harnessing that certain je nais se’quois inherent to Parisian women, so maybe the same should be studied for the city’s breathtaking buds. I wonder if it’s the water they drink that strengthens their stems or their air of beauty is owed the air where they live; either way there’s no doubt living in the heart of Paris makes for one very content calendula.

The velvet petals of the roses that bloom in le Jardin du Luxembourg bear the same craftsmanship and attention to detail typically reserved for the nearby ateliers of haute couture. When it comes to the poppies that also call this famed garden home, each vibrant blossom preserves all that is splendid about Paris: raw, unabashed beauty meant to be savored. A stroll to the Tuilerie Gardens reveals an ever-changing assortment of buds all around so as to remind passerby’s to stop and smell the roses. Just as we can expect breathtaking blossoms to bloom year after year without fail, we’ll always have Paris.