Shopper's Diary: Bleuet Coquelicot in Paris - Gardenista
Photography by Mimi Giboin for Gardenista. It’s hard to miss Bleuet Coquelicot: Plants and flowers of all colors spill onto the sidewalk from a tiny storefront on a busy street in Paris’s Canal St. Martin neighborhood. Tom des Fleurs and his daughter in the doorway at Bleuet Coquelicot. Tom says this will be his only shop. Tom has known some of his customers for a decade or more; he knows their children, and they leave their bags with him as they run errands in the neighborhood. Tom even has a little wooden box where he keeps spare keys for neighbors. There are no employees at Bleuet Coquelicot–Tom says that would change the ambiance of the space and the work. Though he studied art curation, Tom started working for a florist in his neighborhood after finishing school. When he took over the tiny 100-square-foot space, Tom designed a new look for it with help from his friend Robin, a designer and carpenter. During the redesign, Tom literally dreamed about the space: the running water, the walls covered with frescos, the small loft where he could live, floating above the sea of flowers. When Tom gets a new plant, he raises it for a year before selling it. Tom insists on finding good homes for his plants. He won’t sell a plant to someone who he knows won’t take care of it. The bouquets Tom makes are beautifully simple. After her visit to the shop, Mimi told us, “You really feel that Tom is a poet. He expresses himself through plants and flowers, and also by creating a beautiful space for people to share.”