Here she is! The New Parisienne: the Women & Ideas Shaping Paris is a book of honest stories about identity, representation, ambition, struggle, craft and creation. It features women I know personally and others I have long admired. It tackles the myth of the Parisian woman and presents an alternative narrative. It is a book I am deeply proud to have written and tremendously grateful to have been given the opportunity to produce. It is currently available for pre-order everywhere and will be released on JULY 7, 2020.
With the rights, representation, and lives of women all the more firmly anchored in today’s public discourse, my book, as I had imagined it, should add to the discussion. In it I break down the dangerous and reductive archetype of the Parisian woman and highlight more than 40 women from a range of industries and backgrounds, including countries of origin, who are influencing the fabric of the city.
I divided the interviews and profiles into sections: The Activists, The Creators, The Storytellers, the Tastemakers, The Disruptors, and The Visionaries. At the end of each feature, the Parisiennes provide some of their favorite women-run businesses in the city, their favorite places to go with their families, their go-to escapes, and the places across town that are meaningful to them. The book also features five itineraries from five different women and concludes with a guide to make it easy to visit all of the places mentioned when you next visit the French capital.
Even after working on this project for two years, I am still touched by the generosity of each woman whenever I flip through the final copy. They were generous with their time and their stories, and opened my eyes to so many other facets of life in Paris. I hope that in reading this book you will learn something, not only about these women and Parisian women as a set of the population but about yourselves and your perception of women everywhere.
Photography by Joann Pai // Illustrated cover and interior page illustrations by Agathe Singer
If you are based in the United States please consider ordering from Bookshop.org which supports local and independent bookstores across the country!
EARLY PRAISE
“Like the subjects of her book, Lindsey Tramuta is a force. The New Parisienne is the go-to chronicle of the joyful, progressive, pioneering women of a city that Tramuta understands with deep intelligence.”
— LAUREN COLLINS, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHEN IN FRENCH AND STAFF WRITER FOR THE NEW YORKER
“With stunning photographs and inspiring profiles, Lindsey Tramuta tramples the myths and takes us into the lives of real Parisiennes. Bravo!” — PAMELA DRUCKERMAN, AUTHOR OF BRINGING UP BÉBÉ AND THERE ARE NO GROWN-UPS
“Lindsey Tramuta’s ongoing project to chronicle and distinguish the living and evolving Paris from the memory museum it competes with is as ambitious as it is infectious. Here she narrows her focus to one of France’s most enduring and alluring clichés: the Parisian woman. The New Parisienne radically reintroduces—and humanizes—this impossible icon in all of her complexity, as she really lives today. Spoiler alert: She is someone you will want to get to know.”
— THOMAS CHATTERTON WILLIAMS, AUTHOR OF SELF-PORTRAIT IN BLACK AND WHITE: UNLEARNING RACE
“Some of my favorite Parisiennes are in this book. Lindsey Tramuta beautifully gives a voice to a very rich and diverse set of women who make Paris the incredible place it is today. This book is precious: It shatters the tired cliché of the white and skinny Parisian.”
— AIDA ALAMI, JOURNALIST AND CONTRIBUTOR TO THE NEW YORK TIMES AND OUR WOMEN ON THE GROUND
“The New Parisienne is an important book for anyone interested in how intersectional feminism is faring in the land of Simone de Beauvoir. Guess what: It’s thriving. And Lindsey Tramuta is an excellent guide, and a thorough and sensitive observer of and commentator on contemporary France, not to mention one badass feminist.”
— LAUREN ELKIN, AUTHOR OF FLÂNEUSE
“Lindsey Tramuta sweeps away the tired clichés of the Parisian woman with her vivid profiles of the dynamic and creative ‘femmes’ now powering the French capital. Reading her book made me want to go out and rediscover the City of Light in all its compelling diversity!”
— ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, NPR PARIS CORRESPONDENT
“Want to know what real Parisian women are like? Read this book. Lindsey Tramuta rips the corset off the notion that all Parisiennes are thin, white, and casually elegant in a way no other women in the world can be. She gives us real Parisiennes: feisty, smart, ethnically diverse, passionately engaged in their work. And she tells us where to find their favorite spots in a city that is far more interesting and dynamic than the stale images peddled to tourists and global consumers.”
— MIRA KAMDAR, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR AND FORMER PARIS-BASED MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD
