Deirdre Kelly

Deirdre Kelly talks to Joseph Planta about her memoir, Paris Times Eight: Finding Myself in the City of Dreams, a look at the trips she made to France over the years, and how each shaped her life, giving her an understanding of herself, her family and more.

Deirdre Kelly

In returning again and again to the city she loves, Deirdre Kelly solidifies her relationship with Paris in her new book—an ode to the City of Lights she loves.

Why did you decide to write this book?

I wrote Paris Times Eight as a love song to the city that has long inspired me, and I realised that each visit coincided with a significant benchmark in my development as a woman. By travelling inward, and using Paris as my catalyst, I thought I might find meaning in the depths of myself. Mission accomplished.

Shortly after giving birth to my second child, I was unable to walk after contracting a rare and untreatable illness. I am better now, but at the time, being unable to move seemed terribly ironic to me, a person for whom movement—from competitive running and dancing to long distance travel—has given me an identity, not to mention pleasure and strength.

But there I was, laid up on a chaise lounge and unable to walk, let alone hold my newborn, and thinking of all the times in my life when I had moved freely, traversing the world. I thought then of Paris, the city I had most frequently traveled to outside of Canada, recalling at least ten different trips there over thirty years. I realised that Paris was not just my dream city; it was the city by which I had been measuring myself. In remembering each visit, I noticed that each visit coincided with a significant benchmark in my development as a woman.

Why is Paris the perfect city for a woman to visit?

For me, Paris was the mother figure I always wanted, nurturing and educating me in the ways of knowledge, art, sophistication, sensuality, politesse. I know now that I used Paris as an escape from my own mother whose harsh Scots Presbyterian ways made me crave the idea of the feminine as something foreign and remote from what I knew growing up.

That said, Paris has hardly ever embraced me with open arms, and as enticing as she is, she has also been cold, aloof and haughty. Baudelaire described Paris as the “City of Alienation.” Still, her charm, beauty and world reputation has always made me return. I want entrée to her world of female power, and I want to know her secrets. Each time I am in Paris, I find myself studying the female populace, emulating the way they wear their hair and tie a scarf, paint their nails and walk everywhere in heels. Paris is a woman.

What is your favourite place to visit in Paris?

I always go to the rooftop terrace of La Samaritaine, the Art Nouveau-style department store on the banks of the Seine, close to Pont Neuf, for a full 360-degree bird’s eye view of Paris. But since taking my children to Paris, I must say a view from the top of the Roue de Paris (the giant ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde) is the bigger thrill, allowing you to soar high above the rooftops, in reach of the clouds.

What is your favourite eatery in Paris?

There are so many splendid places in Paris to eat, and yet I still have many more to discover. Time and again, I return to Café de Floré where the coffee is as sublime as the people watching, and where I can imagine I am back among those who once prowled Paris in search of artistic and intellectual inspiration before me—Hemingway, Joyce, Sartre, Picasso, Wild, Stein, Pound and Fitzgerald among them.