FROM THE ARCHIVE: Everything gets debated in France. Consider the ongoing philosophical discussion about cookies that’s been raging for the last decade or so in the tonier arrondissements of Paris: it’s the war of the macarons.

Jonathan Adler took over the gilded, glittering Petit Palais Musée des Beaux-Arts in Paris’s swish eighth arrondissement this past June for an evening devoted to his latest project, the Holiday Collector’s Series of limited-edition Adler-ized polo shirts from Lacoste.

The sweet young waitress who works the early shift at the café near my office now recognizes me when I show up for my breakfast coffee and pastry. She has become chatty, is solicitous when it’s rainy or cold, and occasionally slips an extra treat in my bag. It’s terribly nice of her, and I must stop going there at once.

When the Winter Olympics climaxed earlier this year with the storybook gold-medal win of the Canadian men’s hockey team and the streets of Vancouver (my hometown) exploded with exhilaration.