The Window Gardens of Paris 
By JACQUES BOYER 
T HAT genuine love of flowers, which is innate 
among all Frenchmen, rises to the height of 
a veritable passion in Paris. 
Into whatever quarter of the city one may go, or 
whatever may be the season of the year, the great 
establishments of the whole¬ 
sale florists will be found 
thickly interspersed with the 
more modest counters of the 
retailers, each vying with the 
others in an attempt to win, 
by ingenuity and good taste, 
a smile from the goddess Flora. 
Aristocrat or workingman, 
the true Parisian is invariably 
accompanied from his cradle 
to his grave by some sort of 
floral expression appropriate 
to each occasion. This is 
especially true of all holiday 
making, for no fete is complete 
without its accompaniment of 
flowers, which are sure to be 
displayed with a lavislmess 
whose extent is determined 
only by the depth of the fete 
maker’s purse. If, in the 
aristocratic society [of the 
Champs Elysees rare orchids 
adorn the bridal bouquet of 
the daughter of the millionaire, in Montmartre the 
wedding corsage of the ouvricre never lacks the more 
modest but none the less lovely violet. 
Nor is it in the country alone that the flight of the 
seasons is marked by their appropriate flowers. In 
THE ATTRACTIVE WINDOW GARDENS OF AN ENGLISH FURNITURE 
DEALER ON THE BOULEVARD HAUSSMANN 
FLORAL BALCONY— PAQUIN’s, RUE DE LA l’AIX 
Paris, their progress is as un¬ 
mistakably and as regularly 
distinguished. 
With its foliage deepened by 
contrast against the milky 
pearls of its clustered berries, 
the mistletoe (famous in 
France since the days of the 
Gauls), is associated in the 
minds of the Parisian with the 
wintry snows. But with the 
first breath of spring appear 
bouquets of lily-of-the-valley, 
narcissus, hyacinth and lilac; 
while the heats of summer are 
typified in the markets by a 
profusion of buttercups, roses, 
syringas and peonies. And 
finally the chrysanthemum, 
so closely linked in the Gallic 
mind with things funereal, 
blends its melancholic aspect 
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