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Ella Carey’s novel
‘The Paris Time Capsule’ is fictional, but inspired by the incredible true
story
of an apartment in Paris that was abandoned for seventy years … but how does
working around a true story affect the writing process?
I think the answer lies in that very word: ‘truth.’ The main
consideration for me as a writer was to ensure that I respected the original
story, and that even though my novel is a work of fiction, I still wrote with a
sense of truthfulness in mind.
I will come back to that later, but, for now, let me tell
you about the abandoned apartment in Paris that inspired ‘The Paris Time
Capsule.’ The story was reported in online articles, and then in hundreds of
online blogs.
A woman died in the south of France in 2010, but it wasn’t
until after her death that the heirs to her estate discovered that she owned an apartment in Paris that had been abandoned for seventy years. The woman, who was only known as ‘Madame de Florian’ (she became Isabelle de Florian in my novel), fled from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion in 1940 but never returned.
Now, this abandoned apartment was not your usual flat. It was
filled with the sorts of exotic treasures from the Belle Epoque that would make
specialists gasp, and leave the rest of us in shock. The assessors said it was
like walking into Sleeping Beauty’s apartment when they first entered.
But that was not all. There was a stunning portrait in the
apartment of a woman in a pink dress, her head turned to the side, almost as if
she were throwing herself out of her own portrait. Art experts were called in.
They discovered after reading love letters that were found in the apartment,
that the painting was by none other than leading Belle Epoque art expert
Giovanni Boldini. The woman in the painting was identified as Marthe de
Florian, a famous courtesan, or demimondaine. Marthe was the owner’s
grandmother and the previous owner of the apartment.
I was working on a novel about a mystery surrounding
valuable art when I read about this story. My novel involved a love story, and
a family that had been torn apart. But I adore Paris. I speak French; I love
history and art. I abandoned my previous novel, and started researching this.
The process involved much research, of course it did. In
fact, at one point in the novel, it seemed as if I was double-checking every
word on the page.
But the one thing that I had to bear in mind, the one thing
that I wanted to do above everything else, was to write something plausible.
The last thing I wanted to do was write anything that appeared contrived. My
story had to seem real to my readers, it had to feel just as real as the incredible
story of the woman who left her famous ancestor’s past buried in dust for
seventy years.
Here is the blurb for ‘The Paris Time Capsule:’
New York photographer Cat Jordan has fought
hard to free herself from the past, but when a stranger dies, Cat finds herself
the sole inheritor of a treasure filled apartment in Paris that has been locked
up and abandoned for seventy years.
A stash of love letters belonging to
Marthe de Florian, one of the Belle Époque’s
most famous demimondaines, and the appearance of the mysterious and beautiful
Isabelle de Florian’s grandson leads Cat in search of the reasons why Isabelle
kept her Paris apartment a secret, and why she left her entire estate to Cat.
As Cat unravels the story, she too
begins her own journey, realizing that the secrets in the apartment may finally
unlock the future.
Now, can you tell me if a true story
has sparked your imagination?
I have a free copy of ‘The Paris Time Capsule’
on kindle to give away.
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