Paris for Dreamers

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Paris for Dreamers

Paris inspiration by Katrina Lawrence, author of The Parisian Corset (December 2026) and Paris Dreaming Hi, I’m Katrina. Because, yes, we’re dreamers. Kat x

After working as a beauty journalist for many years, I took time off a few years ago to write my first book, Paris Dreaming: What the City of Light Taught Me About Life, Love & Lipstick. After the launch I began to realise that I’m not alone, that there are countless other Paris dreamers out there. We see the world, particularly Paris, through pink-tinted glasses (la vie en rose, and all that). We

’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve watched Sabrina and Funny Face and Midnight in Paris. We love the city in a way that borders on obsessive compulsive disorder — no visit is ever enough. It’s like we keep a little bit of Paris within — an inner Parisienne, let’s say. Alas, we can’t all be Parisiennes, and we can’t all up and move there. We have our own homeland and family and reality. So Paris remains the dream, the place we go to as often as possible in order to recharge our spirits, to colour our world. And when we’re there we want the dream Paris. And that inspired me to work on a new book, Paris for Dreamers: Whimsical Walks Through the City of Light’s Delights. It’s a collection of walks I love for the way in which they tell a story about Paris in a moment in time or through the eyes of past Parisians. They’re wanderings I’ve honed over the years, and I felt the need to share these with other like-minded souls. I know there are countless guides to Paris out there, but this one is for those who like to walk on a deeper level, passing through all sorts of portals of time, meeting fascinating characters and collecting titbits of trivia along the way. I’ve also launched a website, which I plan to grow in numerous ways. For now I’m offering personalised travel tips; simply order, answer the questions in the form at checkout, and I’ll make it my mission to deliver you travel advice as perfectly tailored as a Chanel couture jacket. You’ll also find oodles of information on our favourite city, all written with your dreamy needs in mind. I can’t wait to share this dream of a Parisian adventure with you.

31/05/2026

June’s flower is the rose, which has symbolised the City of Light for me since my teenage-self fell in love with the full-blooming bouquet of a fragrance that is YSL Paris.

By the way, the Corinthian colonnade in the background of this first photograph was repurposed from a late-sixteenth-century funeral chapel commissioned by Catherine de Medici, the queen who kickstarted the French fragrance industry. On moving to France to marry the future King Henri II, she brought along her personal perfumer (and some would say poison-maker), and René le Florentin, in order to cover up the tanning smells of his queen’s leather gloves, sourced ingredients in Grasse, which is now iconic for its roses.

The queen was also a patron of poet Pierre de Ronsard, he of the carpe diem-like catchphrase, ‘Cueillez dès aujourd’hui les roses de la vie’ (pick the roses of life today), and he who has given his name to one of the most globally beloved roses. The Pierre de Ronsard, a romantic climbing rose that can be seen in abundance in the garden of the Palais Royal this month, was bred in France in 1987, and has been inducted into the World Federation of Rose Societies’ ‘Hall of Fame’.

And if flower shows happen to be your thing, this is also the month to head to Parc de Bagatelle, a whimsical, folly-filled oasis on the western edge of Paris where an annual international competition for new roses is held in a heart-palpitatingly pretty rose garden that bursts with over 10,000 flowers 🌹

30/05/2026

Published to coincide with the actress’s centenary, Marilyn and her Books by Gail Crowther delves into Marilyn Monroe’s personal library, much of which was high-brow, including numerous French classics (she particularly loved Proust). Also in her collection was Paris Blues by Harold Flender, the 1957 novel about two American jazz musicians’ quest for artistic and social freedom in post-war Paris. (The book was adapted into a brilliant 1961 film starring Sydney Poitier and Paul Newman, a stunner of a soundtrack, and a guest appearance from Louis Armstrong.) Although Marilyn never made it to Paris herself, she portrayed one of the city’s most famous fictional tourists - Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the 1953 movie based on Anita Loos’ best-selling novel of 1925.

28/05/2026

I’ve always loved following my mood rather than a map when in Paris, seeing where whimsy takes me, turning down streets that capture my imagination. I seem to do this now more than ever. I think I’m seeking out an old Paris. And yes, most of Paris is old, but so much has been buffed to look shiny and new. I get that this is about restoration and protection, and about taking a building or monument back to how it originally appeared. But what I’m searching out is the Paris of a more recent past. The Paris I fell in love with before social media. When it didn’t matter if you looked a little scruffy. You walked out the door, perhaps with unkempt hair, maybe having forgotten to powder your face, and that was it. You were out, at one with your thoughts and the city, and you didn’t have to count your steps or carry a phone that continually beeped at you. And it didn’t matter if your breakfast wasn’t Instagram-worthy. Because that was just life – how it was, not what it could be. It didn’t have to be optimised and maximised, framed and filtered. There could be a little mess. Scratches and glitches. Friction and tension. Sometimes, when travelling, you ended up in a dive because you hadn’t advance-researched your trip to the hilt. But that was the joy of meandering. You followed your own footsteps, not someone else’s. You found your own way, formed your own thoughts. You had time to work yourself out and weren’t expected to have an opinion at the ready. You could ponder and converse, open to new ways of thinking … You didn’t have to be fully realised, always ‘on’. There were no zoom links popping up or facetime calls demanding your immediate attention, nobody walking past wearing glasses that might film and facially-recognise you. You had privacy. What was on the inside counted. And I think that’s why I love the smaller Parisian streets that take me past buildings fronted with peeling paint and crumbling stone. I not only feel like I’m walking back into my own past, but into a more human past, where façades are wrinkled faces that whisper their stories but also life lessons, reminding you that life can be a little imperfect, and that’s totally, perfectly fine.

26/05/2026

Before its life as Musée Rodin, the eighteenth-century townhouse known as Hôtel Biron was a dilapidated artists’ residence, boasting dancer Isadora Duncan, painter Henri Matisse and poet Rainer Maria Rilke among its tenants. Poet-playwright-filmmaker, Jean Cocteau, also lived here for a while, when the garden was a wistfully overgrown tangle of a forest that reminded him of a Charles Perrault fairy-tale – so much so that it inspired the set design of his 1946 movie adaptation of La Belle et La Bête. This, and so many other gorgeous titbits, feature in Paris: Secret Gardens, Hidden Places, and Stories of the City of Light, by the brilliant historian Mary McAuliffe 🌳🏰🌳

23/05/2026

The eastern façade of the Louvre - a revolutionary late-seventeenth-century creation that set the classical and harmonious architectural style of modern Paris - was designed by the brother of the guy who wrote Cinderella (a.k.a. Claude Perrault, brother of Charles), and I will never get over that fact 👑🏛️💫

21/05/2026

Serving you a little literary and cultural history with a (virtual) cocktail today …

La Closerie des Lilas translates as ‘the enclosure of lilacs’ and there’s good reason for this pretty name. Let’s rewind to the mid-nineteenth century …

This area of Paris, Montparnasse, was still largely rural, dotted with dairies and orchards, as well as several ‘bals jardins.’ The most popular of these open-air dancehalls was the Bal Bullier, which was also known as La Closerie des Lilas for its lilac hedges. Here, students and ‘grisettes’ flirted among the fragrant, shady groves, and danced beneath the stars and strung-up candelabras.

The current La Closerie, which opened circa 1903, was named in tribute to the old dancehall, which had been located just across Avenue de l’Observatoire. Originally a village-like café, La Closerie was a favourite of the area’s bohemian artists, and still had a bucolic air to it when Hemingway discovered its peaceful terrace in the early 1920s. If you’ve read A Moveable Feast, you’ll know this was one of the author’s favourite writing spots; he’d come here to escape the noise of his apartment by the sawmill, and it was on the sun-dappled terrace that he penned much of The Sun Also Rises.

It was also where Hemingway’s new friend, F. Scott Fitzgerald, met him to share some of a new book he was working on (oh, just a little something called The Great Gatsby).

La Closerie transformed from a breezy café to a glitzy American-style cocktail lounge in the mid-1920s. It’s now also a chichi brasserie, but the highlight (at least for me) is the old piano bar, with its Art Deco styling and cosy amber glow; to reach it, venture through the leafy bower of an entrance, veer left and settle into one of the glossy banquettes. It’s a soul-warming kind of place, where you’re welcome to sip one cocktail, or as many as you like, and nibble away (the complimentary servings of crisps and olives are generous) while a pianist tickles the ivories.

14/05/2026

‘The pearl-grey city, the opal that is Paris.’ – Anaïs Nin ⚪️

13/05/2026

I think there might be a theme to my current book pile 🤔

10/05/2026

The second Sunday in May is Joan of Arc Day, commemorating one of history’s bravest heroines - and titleholder of one of the all-time top inspirational quotes: ‘I am not afraid; I was born to do this.’

Joan of Arc never technically made it to Paris (the 1429 Siege of Paris, which she led in an attempt to free the city from English-Burgundian control, failed to storm the walls of the city), but her presence is strongly felt here nonetheless.

The warrior turned saint can be spotted all over town, most dazzlingly on Place des Pyramides. The gilded bronze equestrian statue, which dates to 1874, is the work of Emmanuel Frémiet (who was celebrated for his animal sculpture; the elephant outside the Musée d’Orsay is also his).

My other favourite Parisian depiction of Joan is also one of the most subtle, where she’s not clad in armour but dressed in the clothes of the peasant girl she first was: ‘Joan of Arc Listening to Her Voices’ by François Rude (1852), which can be found in the Cour Puget of the Louvre. It was originally commissioned for the Luxembourg Gardens, as part of the ‘Queens and Famous Women’ series, but proved too delicate for the elements (unlike her real-life alter ego) 🤍

08/05/2026

Today is Victory in Europe Day, and the 81st anniversary of N**i Germany’s unconditional surrender after almost six years of war.

On this day in 1945, my grandfather had just been rescued after four years as a prisoner of the N**is. He was one of the lucky ones – he survived – but it adversely affected his long-term health. He didn’t speak about his experiences much (as was the case with so many who had been traumatised by war), but I’ve always known enough of his story (which included a terrifying encounter with the Gestapo) to have a visceral awareness of the evils of fascism.

The fact that fascism is again on the rise – that hatred has permeated our politics so unashamedly; that neo-N**is often feel emboldened to march in public (heck, that they feel emboldened even to exist) – devastates me. And infuriates me on behalf of my grandfather and all the other Allied soldiers who sacrificed so much, often paying the ultimate price; and the women, too, who put their lives on hold, whether for the war effort or to keep their cities running.

How utterly disrespectful to the ‘Greatest Generation’ that we are allowing this history to have a chance to repeat.

And how distressing that history is not taught or read about as it once was. Misinformation is rife online, and we are in danger of letting AI control what we learn and believe. (Think about some of the people behind AI; think of the politicians they support; it’s not farfetched to imagine a world that airbrushes history to suit a particular narrative.)

Historians and their books are more important than ever. If you would like to read about Paris’s experiences during World War II, much of which was spent under N**i occupation, a few of my favourites are: Les Parisiennes by Anne Sebba, When Paris Went Dark by Ronald C. Rosbottom, and Left Bank by Agnès Poirier.

(Photographer unknown; colourisation by Jecinci)

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