Gigi by Colette

Last week I spent a day in Paris with a couple of American friends from Massachusetts. I had forgotten how easy it is to travel there on Eurostar and so much more convenient now trains leave from St. Pancras and are even faster. In the old days we had to take a taxi to Waterloo to catch an early train – now we rolled on to the Victoria line around 6 and caught the 6.55 train. Despite losing an hour we arrived at the Gare du Nord at 10.15. A short taxi ride later we were sitting at a café in Montmartre as the bells of Sacre-Coeur rang out for Ascension Day. I was seventeen when I first visited the Place du Tertre and little has changed – it still reminds me of a film set from Mistral’s Daughter! The rest of the day was swallowed up with lunch in the Boulevard Saint Germain, tea in the Champs Elysees and taking the hop-on/off bus tour from the Eiffel Tower to the Trocadero. How lovely Paris looks from an open top bus – usually I walk miles through all the arrondissements but I was able to savour the impressive architecture on a grand scale and all the pleached horse-chestnut trees bursting into blossom along every boulevard. And then we passed Maxim’s, the famous belle epoque restaurant and I was reminded of Colette’s novella, Gigi.
Written in 1944, it describes a young Parisian girl, Gilberte, being groomed for a career as a courtesan by her grandmother at the turn of the century. Gigi’s transformation from ingenue is charmingly portrayed with a light touch throughout as when, for example, wealthy, handsome Gaston Lachaille buys her dresses for her prepared launch into Parisian society as his new mistress.
The full sleeves and wide-flounced skirt of blue-and-white striped silk rustled deliciously, and Gilberte delighted in pecking at her sleeves to puff them out just below the shoulder.
He laughs, and says she reminds him of a performing monkey, admitting to preferring her in her old tartan dress. Gigi is reluctant to enter into her new role; she loves Gaston, an old family friend, too much to be cast aside when he becomes bored with her, as may inevitably happen, but as she comes to terms with her future position he asks for her hand in marriage. For the first time in his life he has truly fallen in love.
Gigi was made into a film in 1958 starring Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan and Leslie Caron. My mother took me to see Gigi at the cinema and I fell in love with Cecil Beaton’s beautiful costumes, the elegance and ambience of Paris, the most romantic of cities. The city retains that charm for me, all seasons, all weathers. I long to return. And if you’ve been there many times before and seen all the monuments, museums and galleries one day could well be long enough to savour its charms again.