La Soirée

Artist Pascal Blondeau brought a lot of guests to the holiday festivities at the residence of The Ambassador of France Gérard Araud to hang out with him – literally. Decking the boughs of a massive pine tree – traditionally decorated with candy canes, angels and garlands or the Star of Bethlehem – the hanging miniature stuffed polar bears were a tribute to the recent UN climate change conference held in Paris.

“Never have the stakes of an international meeting been so high, since what is at stake is the future of the planet, the future of life,” President François Hollande of France told a packed United Nations audience at the convention held at a nearby suburb of Paris. “I believe, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that there is such a thing as being too late. And when it comes to climate change, that hour is almost upon us. But if we act here, if we act now, if we place our own short-term interests behind the air that our young people will breathe, and the food that they will eat, and the water that they will drink, and the hopes and dreams that sustain their lives, then we won’t be too late for them,” said President Barack Obama. The Paris agreement: A done deal!