"Whatever You Desire"

It's a symbol closely associated with the French monarchy and Florence, Italy. It adorns the helmets of the New Orleans Saints. It was even the logo of Pierce Patchett's high-priced call-girl ring in L.A. Confidential (an odd reference perhaps, but the movie's a favorite of mine). I speak of course of the fleur-de-lys (or -lis, though I prefer the former if for no other reason than I think the word looks cooler spelled that way). It may be hard to lay claim to something so prevalent, but there is no other symbol that I more closely associate with our marriage and move to France.

The symbolism is rooted in Ashley's background. The fleur-de-lys is the logo of her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma -- which was also her mother's and grandmother's, all three of them at Bucknell (Ashley's sister, Meredith, was a Kappa at Colgate) -- and the lily ("fleur-de-lys" literally means "lily flower") is Ashley's favorite flower. This alone would have landed it a prominent role in our wedding celebration. But the fact that that the fleur-de-lys is so very French as well made it, as the Americans say, a slam dunk. And indeed, the symbol graced our wedding invitations, and the flowers adorned tables at the ceremony and reception.


Because of this, I suppose we are especially attuned to fleurs-de-lys sightings. And so it was both fitting and comforting to see the logo on the sign of our hotel, the St. Gregory in DC, where we stayed the last few days. We took it as a cosmic sign that though we are heading out on a big adventure abroad, we will perhaps not be as far from home as we might think. It was similarly fitting and comforting -- though more surprising -- to see the fleur on the doors (pictured above) through which we entered Dulles airport a few hours ago. Its placement there probably had to do with the Air France check-in desk located just inside, to which we were headed. In eight-and-a-half hours we'll be in Paris. Where, I'm guessing, we'll see a few more fleurs-de-lys.

-- MBB