Paris For Dreamers
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Paris For Dreamers

Inspiring Your Dream Parisian Experience

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Katrina Lawrence

Katrina Lawrence

Katrina is an erstwhile beauty journalist who lives in Sydney, Australia — but regularly escapes to Paris, her soul city. She has written two books on her favourite subject, and launched this site to connect with other Paris dreamers around the world.

 

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Recent Posts

  • Paris Gift Guide (or, Ten Ways to Parisfy your Life)
  • Virtual Paris: How to Experience the City of Light from the Comfort of your Couch
  • A Cherry Lover’s Guide to Paris
  • My Paris: Kirsten Carriol, Founder of Beauty Brand Lano
  • What to Do in Paris During Fashion Week

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Women’s History Month Special, Day Seven: The lo Women’s History Month Special, Day Seven: The lovely Place de Furstemberg, with its five-globed lamppost surrounded by a ring of paulownia trees, was the location for the final scene of the 1993 movie The Age of Innocence, based on Edith Wharton’s beloved 1920 novel. Daniel Day-Lewis’s Newland Archer, now an old man, decides against visiting Countess Ellen Oleska, the love of his life who got away many years before, leaving him to a socially acceptable, yet passionless, marriage. By the time Wharton wrote The Age of Innocence, she had lived in Paris for a decade and the honorary Parisienne was won over to the cause of living for love and pleasure. In her previous New York life, she was such a part of high society that her family had inspired the expression ‘Keeping up with the Joneses.’ But she adored the subtle glamour of Paris and the French lifestyle. ‘Their thoughts are not occupied with money-making in itself, as an end worth living for, but only with the idea of having money enough to be sure of not losing their situation in life,’ she wrote in her delightful 1919 essay French Ways and Their Meaning. As well as falling in love with the French — ‘French people “have taste” as naturally as they breathe: it is not regarded as an accomplishment, like playing the flute.’ — she fell feather-hatted-head over daintily-booted-heels in love for the first time in her life. And although the relationship ultimately ended badly, the passion it had inspired imbued her work and life from thereon in. To tour some of Wharton’s Paris, go to 53 Rue de Varenne in the 7th, where she once lived (the plaque describes her as ‘the first writer of the United States to move to France for love of this country and its literature’); The Hôtel de Crillon, where she sometimes lived and worked; Diane de Poitiers’ ‘Fountain of Diana’ sculpture (see previous post) where she and her lover would secretly rendezvous; and the Rodin sculpture garden, which inspired her to muse, ‘The artistic integrity of the French has led them to feel from the beginning that there is no difference in kind between the curve of a woman’s hat-brim and the curve of a Rodin marble.’ 💖
Women’s History Month Special, Day Six: I mentio Women’s History Month Special, Day Six: I mentioned Diane de Poitiers the other day, in relation to Catherine de Medici; they were fierce rivals, Diane being the beloved mistress of Catherine’s husband, King Henri II. And one of the most chic of all sixteenth-century Parisiennes. When all other women wore splashy gem-encrusted gowns in bright shades, she stuck to black and white, which beautifully set off her luminous complexion. Unlike her contemporaries, she didn’t paint or powder her face. Her secret to flawless skin and rosy cheeks was a zealous wellbeing routine that involved plunging herself in cold baths every morning, drinking gallons of broth, taking regular exercise, and having early nights. Her discipline paid off; she was also acknowledged as the most beautiful woman in the realm — if not the life of the party. But Diane had reason to work hard at her beauty routine: she was twenty years older than the king. Still, he worshipped her for all of his adult life. When Henri died, Catherine threw Diane out of Château de Chenonceau, and Diane passed away several years later at her Château d’Anet, a couple of traces of which can be seen in Paris, along with a few other other signs of the couple’s love for one another. Flick through the slides for more … 🤍🖤🤍
Bon week-end, dreamers. The magnolias are starting Bon week-end, dreamers. The magnolias are starting to bloom in Paris. Le sigh. Perhaps we’ll see them again IRL in 2022 ... In the meantime, a lovely way to virtually visit our favourite city is via the movie Eiffel. Have you seen it? (I’m not sure if it is widely released yet; it’s currently playing as part of Australia’s @affrenchfilmfestival.) What a swoon of a film. Loosely based on the tale of engineer’s Gustave Eiffel’s greatest creation, it’s like a glorious historical fiction come to life (no doubt in large part because of the involvement of @tatianaderosnay, author of Sarah’s Key) 🌸
Women’s History Month Special, Day Five (#flashb Women’s History Month Special, Day Five (#flashbackfriday edition): Brigitte Bardot might be more closely linked with the South of France, but she was a Parisienne first of all. Born into a wealthy family in Passy, she broke free of traditional expectations to forge her own career and future happiness. She represented a new generation, the Parisians who had come of age during the war and had grown cynical about the old ways of the world. Even Simone de Beauvoir was a fan of BB as a woman as much as a symbol. Bardot inspired women around the world to live less for others, more in the moment. (Not to mention restyle their hair and makeup!) 💕
Women’s History Month Special, Day Four (World B Women’s History Month Special, Day Four (World Book Day Edition): One of my all-time favourite authors is the English aristocrat turned honorary Parisienne Nancy Mitford. It was in falling for the French (the men, their culture), and then moving to post-war Paris, that she found the meaning to her life, in a determined commitment to living beautifully and joyfully, despite any odds. She penned a succession of gorgeous books from her Rococo-decorated Rue Monsieur apartment (in between a whirl of Dior shows and glamorous soirées), but one of the most beloved is the novel she wrote at war’s end, The Pursuit of Love. The Paris scenes only last thirty or so pages, but gosh they are as delicious as a bow-tied box of pastel macarons 💝
Women’s History Month Special, Day Three: One of Women’s History Month Special, Day Three: One of the many delights of the Luxembourg Gardens is a series of twenty glamorous marble statues — the ‘Queens of France and Famous Women.’ All have wonderful stories to tell but one of the most formidable of the group is surely Sainte-Geneviève. With her angelic face, framed by long ropey plaits, and her eyes closed in prayer, the patron saint of Paris appears to have been a demure and dainty type, but make no mistake, she was as tough as nails; it was Geneviève who, in the mid-fifth century, convinced Parisians not to abandon their island city as Attila the Hun pillaged his way towards Paris. His change of course was attributed to the prayer marathon Geneviève led, and it is for this, plus a lifetime of piety, that she is so revered to this day 🙏🏽
Women’s History Month Special, Day Two: Catherin Women’s History Month Special, Day Two: Catherine de Medici is another Parisienne I find utterly fascinating (if foreboding). Originally from Florence, the wealthy heiress moved to Paris to wed the future king’s younger brother in what was purely a monetary exchange — although the king at the time, François 1er, was a self-styled Renaissance man, and loved all things Italian. The unexpected death of Catherine’s brother-in-law put her and Henri in line for the throne, but as the queen she was miserable for many years because her beloved husband disdained her, preferring to flaunt his relationship with his beautiful mistress Diane de Poitiers. After Henri died, Catherine was in prime position to rule the politics and customs of her country. As queen mother, she continued to culturally influence French society — trends she started included pasta, sorbet, artichokes, as well as the art of eating with a fork; on a fashion side, she promoted the wearing of handkerchiefs, underclothes, perfume and perfumed gloves. But she also had a dark side. The Italian perfumer she brought with her to France was rumoured to also be a poisoner, helpful in the elimination of anyone who got in the way of her ambitious plans. She schemed and plotted, and could be brutal when necessary, such as the ordering of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre, where the celebrations for her daughter’s marriage to the future Henri IV were turned into a bloodbath, with thousands of protestants being killed all over the city. She also dabbled in astrology, adoring Nostradamus (who predicted her husband’s death in a jousting accident). The ‘Medici Column’ pictured here is believed by some to have been built for her personal astrologer; inside is a spiral staircase that took him right to the top for star-gazing. It was originally set within the grounds of a palace she commissioned, building being another great cultural love of hers. But it’s the only architectural remnant left of her. Her bloodline died out, too. She saw all her sons die, and with it the Valois line. As Leonie Frieda observes in her fabulous biography ... CONTINUED IN COMMENTS
Women’s History Month Special, Day One: Over the Women’s History Month Special, Day One: Over the coming weeks, I’m planning to celebrate some of my favourite Parisiennes (as well as temporary and honorary Parisiennes). And I can’t not start with Eleanor of Aquitaine, my personal favourite superwoman of history. The beautiful, intelligent, elegant and free-spirited heiress was the catch of the twelfth century, with a huge expanse of rich feudal land to her name. On marrying the future King Louis VII in 1137, she moved from southern France — where she’d grown up in a court of high culture — to Paris, a grim and dirty city back then, much in need of her feminine touch. Despite going on crusade with her husband, she eventually tired of their spark-free relationship, and divorced him to take back her inheritance and unite with the future King of England, Henry II. The double-queen had ten children in all, including Richard the Lionheart, but motherhood did not slow her down; she was constantly on the move to keep order in the realm (except for the decade in which Henry locked her up, that is — it was a … complicated relationship). Eleanor came into her own in her sixties, and for the next twenty years proved herself an impressive leader, strategist and negotiator at a time when it was rare for women to have even a whisper of a public voice. She shaped the Western psyche as much as politics, by inspiring reams of romantic literature — and her daughter Marie of Champagne was patron of the writer Chrétien de Troyes, who romantically refashioned Lancelot’s story into a handbook of chivalry. Another descendant, Saint-Louis, built that Parisian jewel in the crown, Sainte-Chapelle, and her royal blood has flowed down to modern times, even to Queen Elizabeth II. If you want to know more about this legend of a woman, I highly recommend Alison Weir’s biography ⚜️
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