A few days ago we walked early in the morning across the Park of Maisons-Laffitte and spotted these delicate white flowers known as ‘snowdrops’. Here are a few photos…
On that morning we walked approximately 4 kilometres across the vast park of Maisons-Laffitte, here pictured the perspective from Place Napoléon to Place Wagram.
Our little white flowers were spotted just on the left.
The French word for snowdrop is ‘perce-neige’ (pierce-the-snow)… still very romantic!
Snowdrops generally flower towards the end of Winter hence ‘piercing through the snow’ (perce-neige). There was no snowfall this Winter in Paris but the little snowdrops somehow found their way in growing… piercing through the dead leaves!
The white flowers always remind me of a story I learnt to read in Primary school. Based on a Russian fairy-tale (The Twelve Months), it tells us of a young orphan girl sent out during a snow storm by her cruel stepmother. In the middle of the forest, she found the spirits of the 12 months of the year, who took pity on her and not only saved her from freezing to death, but made it possible for her to gather snowdrops in the dead of winter.
