In the spirit of following my bender... can we discuss flowers and The Four Seasons Hotel George V (like “sank”) Paris?

You always know when you see something new.  While at Parsons I was consistently told that there is nothing completely original.  That every design has base in something that came before it.  Sad, but what a relief!

And yet there does seem to be times when you believe you are seeing something altogether brand spankin new.  Something so refreshing, that even if it had been highly influenced by outside factors, this fact is overshadowed by cleverness and an execution that it is of the future almost.

I happened to stay at the Wynn Las Vegas during their soft opening in 2005 when I was first introduced to him.  I didn’t know him by name yet, but I knew him by design.  The floral design at the Wynn during this period was magnificent.  I literally wanted to come down the elevator just to see the presentation in the hallway.  And then I wanted to turn around and go back, so that I could pass it again.

Can you just imagine me going back and forth, back and forth?!  I may have.  I can’t remember.

I found out later that this designer had a name and was the artistic director for The Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris.  Seemingly a European, he was born in Utah.  Just in case this matters to you.

This is all interesting and everything, but not the end of the story.  Wait for it...

Remember Paris Julia?  What I failed to mention before is that she became our friend and foodie tour guide.  T and I ended up having a pretty late night with her and her friends, so the next day was a challenge of magnificent proportions.  

We started by the Louvre, thank God we had done this on another trip so as not to feel the great need to do it again.  I was not waiting in that horrific line!  Not that day.  We then ended up at the Tower Eiffel…so touristy!  And then back across the Seine…

Just like our Boston bender (just going with it), our walk had turned into discomfort.  When the weather is that beautiful in Paris all you really need to do is take a walk.  But like I said, when walking cities, there is that moment.  Thank God our moment happens to land us in front of a Four Seasons Hotel.  It’s as if we are homing pigeons and it just finds us.

Now, whether I just happened upon it or not, I was always intending on visiting the lobby of this hotel, for he always has his magnificent flower arrangements on display and I needed my dose of it all.  I just didn’t know I was going at this particular moment. 

Lucky me, peonies were in season.  Thousands of bundles peony sitting peacefully at the top of tall glass cylinders all over the place!  My photos do not do them justice, but just for proof...I hid a couple at the end of this page...

Okay, okay, okay, get to the point Briana...now for the kicker.  While T is using the lavatory I find a nice french antique chair in a lobby corridor.  The 6” thick 100% down cushion deflated under my fanny like a cloud.  I was floating in a Green silk moire cloud.  I am minding my own business wondering if they would allow me to take photos of the flowers...looking left, then right, then…Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!  It’s him!  Jeffrey Leatham. 

The man himself rearranging the flowers.  I was so sleepy and comfortable in my little chair that this all felt like a dream sequence.  Like I see him, but I don’t quite register it as real.  I watch him, and watch him do his thing (boss his staff around…nicely), he walks by me a couple times, lifts up his shirt to scratch his tummy once.  And do I say anything?  Of course not.  I’m dreaming remember?

It’s not until we are almost back at Anna’s apartment does T ask me why I didn’t march myself into the Four Seasons gift shop, buy his books and have him sign them.  Well that would have just been too easy my friends.  What a great gift and memory that would have been!  C'est la vie!