Peonies in Paris

On Friday someone commented,” Carol, i just love your peony watercolour sketches! Will you be offering them for purchase? I think of them as "A Suggestion of Peonies." 🌸 

A seed was planted. Late at the Sunday Bastille marché, finally headed home, loaded with pamplemousse, I noticed the flower stand was packing up. 

They saw me drooling and offered me one bunch of peonies  for 15€ or…two bunches for 20€. Guess who came home with  pale pink and Bordeaux colored pivoines/peonies?

I didn’t know peonies are grown in Bordeaux. Or in the Midi in the south. Or that the Chinese during the Tang dynasty began breeding peonies in the imperial courts in the 7th century BCE. 

Or that Eduard Manet was superb at painting peonies. These are at the d’Orsay.

I’ve been painting peonies for a long time yet didn’t investigate 🔍 them very much. These peonies are from 2019.

In the same post I took a photograph of Cordelia de la Castellane from the back, in a peony pink suit at the Dior Homme show opening nearby. I’m sure its her. She’s the creative director at Dior.

Recently I was in Cordelia’s Coffee Flower shop with Alaina for tea ☕️ and the window was full of peonies of course. I was thinking I MUST paint these 🌸

The 4 peonies from Jardins,Jardin I carried to Burgundy and stashed in the fridge. 

The chocolate 🍫 makers needed all the space and insisted I move them.

Otherwise I might have never started painting them 🌸 My flower vase was a crème fleurette bottle used for making whipping cream (to go with all the strawberries 🍓 in season right now).

I bet you’re wondering about the mini Champagne 🍾 bottle…

Coming home from Nantes, I discovered, tucked in a corner of Montparnasse station a Fauchon shop fully stocked. Anyone sensible would be eager to get home & unpack. 

Me, I stopped to browse. I really miss the big Fauchon store at Madeleine. It was always my first go-to place in Paris for imaginative wild creativity in food and packaging.

I bought a madeleine cookie, a Fauchon shopping bag and the mini bottle of Fauchon Champagne🍾 I made the guy in the shop very happy ☺️

The end of a long, wandering, shaggy dog story…just like these shaggy peonies. This one, the color of bubble gum, is called Jacorma. One of the last blossoming peonies of the season FYI. She’s from The Netherlands.

Jane took this picture in Noyers, when I was let loose to chase after l’escargot 🤸‍♂️

I’m Carol Gillott, an artist living in Paris. Every month I send out beautifully illustrated letters that capture the true Parisian experience. Sign up to receive these whimsical treasures in your mail.

Thanks for reading PB ❤️

☕️ If you’d like to support my work, you can buy me a KO-FI here  ☕️  ❤️ Thank you so much!  Bon Mercredi PBers🤸🏾‍♀️🎉🥂