The Man Behind the Bouquet

Before sunrise, six mornings a week, the florists at Moulié arrive at the store to collect the day’s deliveries. Two days before Valentine’s Day, 12 shrink-wrapped boxes from the Odet nurseries awaited them on the sidewalk. The small team aired out the shop, located opposite the National Assembly in Paris’s seventh arrondissement. They swept up a few petals and carried the garden plants outside, having brought them in the evening before to protect them from the winter night. 

Surprisingly, with Valentine’s Day just 48 hours away, the shop windows display no red roses. Rather, there are two camellias, each about three meters tall, on either side of the door, and pretty bunches of white, orange and pink lilies and hydrangeas behind the window. A little further into the store stand two vases of red roses. At Moulié, the flowers are always fresh and flawless, and never stay more than 24 hours. “We have a fairly high-end clientele. I’ll be there in the morning when the flowers arrive to see what’s coming in. If a flower isn’t beautiful, I send it back,” says Julien Moulié, CEO. 

Founded in 1870 by the Lange family, Moulié was taken over by Julien’s parents in 1978. As a child, Julien grew up in an apartment nearby, so he could pop downstairs to spend time with his parents, who worked long hours. “I was lucky enough to be immersed in it, to grow up in it, and to be trained at a fairly young age.” He gave his first bouquet to his grandmother. In 2012, he and his brother took the reins of the business, and today it’s the go-to florist for the city’s politicians and cultural elite.

In the days leading up to Valentine’s Day 1,000 red roses will be delivered to Moulié daily. (Julien says they will receive more next week, too, for latecomers.) He expects around 300 customers on the day itself, mainly men. “There’s a line from morning to night. They don’t really know what they want, so we guide them. But people are smiling. They’re happy because they’re here to make someone happy, or because they have to do it because women never forget,” he smiles.

Curiously, Julien doesn’t particularly like Valentine’s Day, as he considers the price of roses ridiculously high. For those looking for alternate flowers, whether due to the unaffordability of roses or the pollution associated with their exportation, Julien suggests a bouquet of anemones or ranunculus, which are seasonal flowers produced in France. He recommends choosing a bouquet based on what the recipient likes, in terms of colors or shapes (do they seem like they’d prefer a round bouquet or a more wild one?). Be careful with bulb flowers, he warns, because after a few days they will start to wilt. 

At Moulié, quality is a priority. Customers won’t find dyed flowers, for example, because Julien hates them. “It was my parents who were quite strict about how flowers should be treated. My father was an excellent buyer, so he also trained me to know where each flower came from at a glance,” he says. 

“We are fortunate to have customers with good taste. It helps us evolve. It’s an exciting job because no two flowers are alike. It’s our job to bring a slightly crooked flower to life and put it in the right position. It has to make people’s hearts sing” he explains.

Today, the florist is moved when a child comes to buy one symbolic rose for his mother, using the few coins from his piggy bank. “We’ll spoil him, of course, but it’s just as cute as someone who can really afford it and ends up buying a huge bouquet. In the end, it’s the sentiment that counts, not the price.” Moulié’s customers are loyal; some were served by his parents for more than 30 years, and still pass by today.

In the future, Moulié hopes to remain as it is. Not because it lacks ambition, but because it is a profession driven by passion, one Julien’s 8-year-old son may take up, if his heart desires.