Luxembourg

I had cause for a mini celebration today. In the past 4 months, I have seen the
opening times for the Luxembourg Gardens change. In September, the gardens
closed at 6pm. In October, at 5:30PM, in November at 5pm, and December, at
4:30pm. This is of course because the park cannot be open after dark..and
4:30pm means dark. Today when I picked up my little Parisian parcel from
school, I assumed that as usual, we had spent far too long trying to get each
finger into each glove hole, doing jackets and coats up tight, and unwrapping
afternoon tea to eat on the walk home. We usually make it to the entrance of the
gardens just when the guards start blowing their whistles to clear out.
Well today I was wrong. The gardens are now open until 5pm! Maybe the fact
that I have bought one summer dress per week in the last 2 months (vintage of
course, maximum price 10euros) has been a subconscious indicator that
winter here is depressing me?
Usually I am all for winter. I love being rugged up, cosy, in front of a fire, at the
snow. The problem here is the incessant cold and therefore need to wear
anywhere up to 3 (ok maybe sometimes 4) pairs of tights in order to leave the
house. This is a tiring process, getting up each day at 10am to feel human (I am
convinced that getting up before the sun should be illegal) only to see the sky
stay a consistent shade of gray before disappearing again at 4:30pm. No longer.
This means we are officially going the other way; warmer- not colder, sunnier-
not darker!