Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Change of Seasons

It's definitely fall in Paris. The light is less direct, the days are noticeably shorter, there's a chill in the air, the market is full of pumpkins, and the fellow selling roasted chestnuts has once again set up shop next to the subway entrance. And yes, while the leaves are turning and falling off the trees, there's something missing.

It took me awhile to put my finger on it because all the other signs of the season where there. No, it's not the jack o'lanterns. It's the vibrant reds of maples, the vivid yellow of tulip poplars, the orange of -- well I don't know, some tree whose leaves turn that wonderful shade of orange -- plus the wonderful sight of a hillside bathed in all those colors at once. Instead, in Paris and in the environs round about, the trees simply become brown and then bare. For all the complaining I did about raking leaves when I was a kid, I should be grateful. But for the moment, I'm dreaming of the Appalachian mountains or simply my DC neighborhood where the trees form a canopy over the street and the leaves sometimes cover the sidewalk like a crazy quilt. A cozy sweater and a bowl of steaming homemade soup will have to do.

5 comments:

debbie in toronto said...

Oh Anne...this past weekend my husband and I were up north (muskoka cottage country) and the leaves were amazing...reds and orange..every shade...I would certainly miss that too. Fall is the best season for so many reasons...

Starman said...

There is nothing but green wherever you look here. And that's all year round. I don't really miss the fall colors until I see them and it has been a while.

Shelli said...

My husband mentioned a couple of weeks ago that fall must be late in Paris since the trees weren't turning colors! Brown doesn't count as a color, I guess.

Shelli

Duchesse said...

I'd always dreamt of seeing Paris in the fall (my fave season) and was disappointed when I finally did and realized that there were no fall colours to speak of over there... Oh well:) Still love Paris, but much prefer Eastern Canada in the fall for the reasons you've mentioned;)

Can you imagine the Champs Élysées and the Jardin du Luxembourg in shades of red, orange and yellow? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh:)

Maureen said...

Anne - you can see some of the colors in the trees surrounding Lac Inferieur in the Bois de Boulogne. Granted, they aren't as vibrant as those in the Eastern US, but they still fill a void, and are beautiful in their own way.

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