"Your river, Paris, she is deep and wide enough for vessels to travel. My heart is deep, and more so in continuous heavy rain, but has it been wide enough for vessels to travel? And is it safe enough for one to stay, especially when it is overflowing?"

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"My little heart, pretending to be big, who gets the hurt from my strong conviction, can handle it. But perhaps I lied when I said my heart didn’t need soothing when I broke it with my rational decision— to break up in December, par exemple — or at least I was confused. Now, after waves of pain, guilt, and even anger, which surprised my heart a little, I know my rational conviction, my principles are what soothe my pain, because they give meaning to it and meaning is as important as life itself, if not more..."

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"Ça va, Paris ?"

"How have you been in the last few hours? You looked after me so well for the past week that there was not a moment that I didn’t feel loved, and London was so welcoming this morning with its persistent rain, which I welcomed with my persistent smile..."

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"I ran two miles this morning and walked a little along the Seine, spying Notre Dame in the distance with giddiness in my body before picking up mini viennoiseries from the local boulangerie. I am now back in bed, sitting here not feeling blue, spilling my heart to you: Paris, Paris, que je m’en fou!"

(Read the full text on imaginedparis.com)

"That’s what I want, Paris – staying close. I’m staying close to you when the rain tiptoes on the skylight window in the morning, when water splashes the porthole of my room like a waving scarf, when I hear my footsteps on the barge floor in the middle of the night, when my breaths speak slowly to my mind, when tears gently cleanse my face…"

(Read the full text on imaginedparis.com)

"It’s quiet, Paris. The rain is dancing lightly on the pier and on the deck and I feel as light—ben, it’s just getting heavier all of a sudden—now it’s tiptoeing again—getting heavy again, and back to its lightness – you get the idea. Yet, all the same, it feels quiet in my world...."

(Read the full text on imaginedparis.com)

"A bientot, Paris!"

"I now feel so embraced while embracing all my Parisian phases—the ‘young and abandoned’ Dina, the ‘unhappily-married’ Dina, the ‘reborn and rebellious’ Dina, the ‘single and not on the dating apps’ Dina, the ‘insatiable Londoner girlfriend’ Dina, and the current phase I haven’t got a label for yet..."

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"What a night, Paris!"

"All the same, I feel such tenderness toward everything and everyone these days—yes, even you—especially you! I feel that I understand them and I want them to feel seen so that in turn they can see themselves, all that good and all the goods. I feel that I understand you and I want you to feel seen so that in turn you can see yourself, all that good and all the goods."

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