In English, flower In Spanish, flor And in French, fleur. All meaning the beautiful blooms springing up this time of year. In Rochelle's case, the fleurs don't bloom but are carved into stone, so they'd better be more than just pretty. In fact, there are Fleur de Lis all over Rochelle's stuff. Her bags, hats, dresses and shoes are plastered with them, but why? First we need to learn a little French and a little history. Lis in French literally means lily, but a lot of people think that the fleur de lis is actually based on an iris flower, and looking at the shape of the wild iris below, I can see what they mean. A Giant Wild Iris. Photo by Rita Venable |
People have been making themselves look stylish with flowers for centuries (see Skelita's marigold necklace and Cleo de Nile's yet-to-be-discussed obsession with the Lotus flower) because flowers are pretty but they also carry meaning. The fleur-de-lis is a flower and a symbol and its meaning has always been clear - in the beginning the fleur-de-lis has meant royalty.
In fact, the fleur-de-lis has become part of royal legend in France. Remember, legends are good stories, but they usually involve some weird (and possibly untrue) stuff. There are stories about golden lilies (or irises) magically appearing on the shield of Clovis, the first king of France, and even about little gold fleur-de-lis raining down from the skies to show that he was the true king. There's even a story that an angel flew down from heaven with a flask shaped like a fleur-de-lis. It was was full of oil, and the angel smeared it all over Clovis to show that he was the right guy to be king.
Clovis was a good and famous king and so other royals wanted to be like him. They stamped fleur-de-lis on money, put it on flags, shields and spears and built it into their architecture. If you visit France you will see fleur-de-lis in tile, stone, brick, paint and even glass, like the stained glass window below.
For Christians the three petals mean the trinity. Trinity comes from tri which means three, like triangle or tricycle. The Trinity is a way of talking about the three states of God in Christianity - the father, the son and the holy ghost.
La Sainte Chapelle, where most of these photos were taken, was also the royal chapel so the fleur de lis does double duty meaning god and king!