file 11
episode 1
Diana and I are actually quite similar in a lot of ways. We both like people, places, plans, going out, discovering things, having something to look forward to. I think we just express it a little differently.
She has this very natural enthusiasm for things. For people, for places, for dinners, for plans. She can make something very simple feel like an event, even when it’s just lunch at home on a gloomy Sunday. I think I’m more likely to overthink things, dissect them, turn them into questions. Diana has a way of just living them.
We also share this slightly complicated relationship with Paris. We both love it, but not in a blind way. We have our favourite streets, our comfort zones, our places we keep going back to. We both talk about neighbourhoods as if they have personalities, and probably attach far too much meaning to where we have coffee (Diana has chai).
What I love about her is that she makes things feel easy. Conversation with her moves quickly. One minute we’re talking about cities and growing up, then clothes, then relationships, then where to get a chai, then suddenly I’m upstairs photographing her wardrobe.
There’s something very generous about the way she lets people into her world. Her home, her table, her routines, her recommendations, her stories. I think that’s why interviewing her never really felt like interviewing her.
It just felt like spending an afternoon with Didi, except this time I happened to bring a recorder.
Diana is the first at-home interview I do, which already makes it feel slightly different. I go to her place for lunch on a Sunday afternoon. It’s gloomy outside, very Paris-doesn’t-really-know-what-season-it-is. I take my bike and cycle to the 8th, only to discover that the Champs are blocked. Extremely irritating. Minor logistical drama before lunch.
The first part of the interview happens while Diana is preparing food, which I immediately like. Nothing ceremonial, nothing staged. She makes a salad with salmon and feta, which, weirdly enough, is exactly what I had been craving for lunch. Good start.
We talk while she moves around the kitchen, and from the beginning she’s incredibly enthusiastic. About the questions, about the conversation, about showing me things. There’s something very easy about it. It feels less like sitting someone down for an interview and more like I’ve accidentally brought a recorder into a Sunday lunch.
Y: Pretend the recorder is not here.
D: Sure.
Y: When I was preparing the interview, I had to remind myself of all the cities you’ve lived in over the past four years.
D: There have definitely been quite a few! Through university, I had the opportunity to live in Milan, Turin, Madrid, London and Paris. I could have done another semester in Berlin too, I think, but I said no. At some point I just thought, enough. Now I’ve been more or less settled in Paris for three years.
Y: I travelled a lot as a child and while growing up, and people often ask me whether living in so many different places changed me. I always say no. What changed me were the people I met and my interpersonal relationships.
D: That’s true, but I also think that depending on where you live, you meet very different kinds of people, and those people can make you grow more or less. I would say that, fundamentally, I’ve always been more or less the same person. I’ve always been very euphoric, someone who likes going out and having fun.
In Milan, I was that person to the extreme. There was no such thing as staying home on a Saturday night. Sometimes I would go out simply because staying home felt strange to me. I think I stayed like that in Turin, and during my first semester in Madrid too. Madrid is such a lively city, everyone is always outside, and I naturally followed that mood.
London was probably the moment when La Didi calmed down a little. I still go out, have fun, organise dinners, but I can also say no now. I can spend a weekend at home and be perfectly happy being quieter.
Y: Did you have FOMO?
D: When I was in Madrid, Turin or Milan, it wasn’t FOMO in the sense of, “Oh my God, I absolutely need to do this thing.” It was more like, “It’s the weekend, I have to go out. Staying home simply isn’t an option.”
I would genuinely get anxious at the idea of staying home and watching a film. Completely out of the question! I had to go out, or at least have people over and do something at home.
Y: You host a lot of dinners at home.
D: I love having people over.
Y: And you have an amazing apartment.
D: I try to use it as much as possible, including the terrace. And in general I really, really love inviting people over. I think it’s such a nice thing to do.
Y: Where does Paris sit compared to all the other cities?
D: I think Paris was another step entirely. When I started university, I started it with the goal of eventually coming to Paris. Paris had always been my final destination. I had always had this love for the city, and I knew I wanted to live here.
So when I finally arrived, I was incredibly excited, like a child in a sweet shop. And because my sister was already living here, I had always found excuses to come and visit her. Sometimes she would be at university during the day and I would just wander around Paris on my own. I loved it.
When I actually moved here, it was beautiful. I remember thinking, okay, I have to experience everything fully. But it felt different from before. It wasn’t, “I need to be outside all the time because otherwise I feel bad.” I could absolutely spend a whole weekend at home.
I wanted to go out because I was curious. There was so much curiosity.
Y: And does that curiosity stay, even after three years? I’m always slightly afraid of falling into a comfort zone. Then I remember that Paris is full of completely different places and arrondissements.
D: Absolutely. Obviously, because it’s convenient, I also started going back to the same places all the time: Saint-Germain, the 7th… the places inside my comfort zone. Like a lot of people, I would say Mazarin and Balto are definitely part of mine. I love them.
There was also a period when my comfort zone, and actually it still is, especially on Sundays, was the Marais and Café Hugo, sitting under the arcade. If I’m with one particular friend and I just want to see her, feel comfortable and sit somewhere familiar without necessarily running into loads of other people, that’s where I go.
And then I remember that at the time so many of my friends lived in the Marais too. I think I might even have suggested we meet there once!
Y: Any places you’ve discovered recently?
D: I’d really like to get to know the 11th better. The problem is that I’m very, very lazy, and for me the 11th is genuinely inconvenient. If someone tells me we’re having dinner there, or if it’s already planned, fine… but otherwise I’ll always choose somewhere closer.
I’m also becoming really curious about the 9th. It feels very young, and I went to this place there once with my boyfriend and we ate incredibly well. It’s called La Boule Rouge. It’s really nice for a girls’ night, but also a little romantic if you’re going on a date.
Y: Can we have Didi’s Paris address book?
D: Go.
Y: A place to have a coffee when you actually have time?
First of all, I’m not really a coffee person, I’m a chai person. I barely drink coffee anymore since I discovered chai last year. Before that, I didn’t even know what it was.
Otherwise, tea with milk, always. Every time I see a coffee shop with chai latte, I go in, so I’m slowly trying all of them. The Marais has loads, and so does the area around my office in the 1st and 2nd.
I like getting one and drinking it at Palais Royal.
Another place where I used to meet my friends all the time last year is Le Fumoir, near Louvre-Rivoli, right on the corner. I had lunch there once too. The food isn’t amazing, but the location is really strategic because you’re close to the Marais, and you’re also not far from Saint-Germain.
Y: A place for my next date? Which won’t be happening anytime soon because I’ve officially declared a break from men.
D: In the 9th, like I was saying, La Boule Rouge. Otherwise, Sugaar on Rue Gozlin. They also make really good cocktails. The raw dishes are great too, and I’m a huge fan of prawns.
Y: A place for girls’ night?
D: I love girls’ nights, and I love organising dinners. I actually have places saved specifically for girls’ nights that are different from the places I suggest when I’m organising mixed dinners.
One I really love because I adore the vibe opened a few years ago. It’s called Anahi, in the Marais. They serve meat and it’s really, really good.
But there are a thousand others. Tekès, and Safado in the 2nd, where they have live singing.
Y: A place for shopping?
I’m obsessed with this French brand, but fun fact, I actually discovered it in Italy, in the mountains. It’s called Maison Hotel.
There’s this tiny, tiny multi-brand boutique in the Marais that carries a lot of Maison Hotel pieces. And I love their little necklaces.
I’m not actually that much of an accessories person. I don’t really wear anything too bold. But this summer, for example, I bought some bangles and those became a must for the entire summer.
When it comes to jewellery, though, I don’t really follow trends. I also don’t really follow that whole idea that gold suits some people better and silver suits others better.
Y: I always mix them.
D: I have to say, I own much more gold than silver.
Y: Can we see your wardrobe?
D: Sure, let’s go up, follow me.
Wardrobe tour will be revealed in episode 2 :-)