THE NIGHTS OF THE TOYS AND THE CHRISTMAS GNOME

Did you see this child, the little boy in the portrait, anywhere?

Whenever I am in Paris in December, I always find myself looking here and there in the streets to find the little boy of the portrait...
Last time, a painter in the Square of the painters, who was making the portrait of a little boy in a blue
blue French beret, looked at me strangely when he heard me calling the little one "Francois-Louis! Francois-Louis!"
Am I to blame that the little boy was identical to Francois-Louis, the lost boy who was wandering in the streets of the capital for 22 whole days before Christmas?
François-Louis, now a grown man, waits like a child every year for Christmas to arrive, just as he did when he was a little boy!
Because when Christmas arrives, his friend the gnome arrives too...
He allows his friend the gnome to sleep in the bed he slept in when he was a child, in the room he slept in during his childhood, in which everything remains with no change, exactly as it had been in those days.
He himself stays sleepless in his armchair, gazing at his childhood friend, the gnome, who sleeps
and laughs happily as he dreams...
On the other nights, he greets him through the window pane, whenever the gnome comes close to the window to eat his rice.
The story doesn’t end there! It doesn’t ever end! It is still continuing to this very day! Yes, indeed!
It will continue, as long as Christmas exists...as long as children play with their toys...For as long as you yourselves would like it to continue!
For as long as you will cherish Christmas in your hearts and throughout the year, until the next Christmas arrives...
This is a story not only for those who love Christmas, but even for the few who claim not to like Christmas, because they will love it even if that happen at the very last page of this book!