Exploring the best of Toronto and Southern Ontario.

Hi all! I hope everyone is having a nice, relaxing Sunday. I spent the day doing nothing particularly exciting – cleaning the house, finishing up final school projects, taking care of personal chores, and getting ready for the work week – although I was able to get out for a nice, snowy winter walk. As much as I loathe the cold and the shoveling, I love the way the world feels after a fresh snowfall – so bright and peaceful! It was nice to have a quiet day because we were out late at Tania’s work party last night. “Late” for us these days means anytime past 11. Nowadays if I have more than two glasses of wine or don’t get a full 7-8 hours of sleep, I need the entire next day to recover. My friends in their late twenties/early thirties tell me they’re the same way, so at least I’m not alone!

Yesterday was a fun day: Tania and I headed to downtown Toronto to check out a free, fun holiday event: Fleurs de Villes NOËL. For those of you not familiar with Fleurs de Villes, it’s a seasonal event that takes place at various times throughout the year, featuring impressive floral installations crafted by talented local florists. I’d been to their spring and summer events before, but never to their NOËL edition, so I was excited to check it out!

Fleurs de Villes NOËL takes place in Yorkville, and this year’s show featured over thirty different floral installations in various locations throughout the neighbourhood, both indoor and outdoor. There was a booth set up on Cumberland Street providing maps of the trail to help visitors plan their self-guided walking tour. Fleurs de Villes is famous for their over-the-top mannequins, and this year’s creations were especially spectacular. My personal favourites were the mannequin with the lush evergreen skirt in Village of Yorkville Park, and the dazzling red mannequin in the sleigh outside William Ashley.

Saturday was a chilly day, so thankfully some of the installations were located inside! We popped into the Holt Renfrew Centre to warm up, and spotted a few more fun activations throughout the mall.

A beautifully festive wreath-like installation welcomed visitors to Eataly. We couldn’t resist stopping in to browse their fancy gourmet food selection and enjoy some samples of their lemon panettone.

Sadly, today is the last day of Fleurs de Villes NOËL – it was only on from December 7-11, and I didn’t have time to post about it yesterday when we came home. However, I still wanted to share it with you all so you remember to put it on your holiday to-do list for next year! You don’t even have to wait until December – as I mentioned earlier, the Fleurs de Villes team puts on several events throughout the year, and their next Toronto pop-up – Fleurs de Villes VOYAGE – will be returning to the Yorkville area in May 2023. You can sign up for their email list to stay informed of their upcoming events.

I hope everyone has a great week ahead! What fun things are you doing to celebrate the holiday season?