NATURAL HABITAT

When a one-year sabbatical turned into a permanent move and career change, artist Kate Merritt found new inspiration in Paris where she now lives with her young family, she tells Alison Weeks

- Alison Weeks

After working as an art editor for a London-based children’s magazine for 15 years, Kate Merritt was ready to try something new. And so when the publishers she worked for began offering sabbaticals, Kate seized the opportunity to have a break and a bit of an adventure. She hoped to try something completely different and experience life in another country. She could have gone anywhere, but she chose Paris for its beauty, architecture, galleries, nightlife and how pretty it is in the spring.

FLOWER POWER

Her original plan was to take a year out in 2011, but now some nine years later, Kate is well and truly at home in France. I meet Kate for a walk and talk at one of her favorite spots in the city – the Parc Floral de Paris. Situated in the Bois de Vincennes in the 12th arrondissement, these extensive botanical gardens were once part of the royal hunting domain and then later used by Napoleon as a military training ground.

The modern Parc Floral was established in the 1960s following a successful horticulture show. Today the area boasts 28 hectares and some of the most stunning floral displays in the city. Kate is particularly fond of the annual dahlia competition in September and the flamboyant flower is a reoccurring theme in her work.

Kate may know Paris well now but had only been there a few times as a tourist before making the move. And what better way to get to know a city than living in different areas. She started out in the north-east of the city in Goncourt for a short time before moving to Belleville, and then finally to the 18th arrondissement near Jules Joffrin where she found “a lovely little apartment” that she rented from an American lady who spent half the year in the US and half in Paris. “It had views of Sacré-Coeur – if you stuck your head right out of the window and stood on tippy-toes,” Kate says laughing.