paper & parfum ~ a girl's story
pairing perfume with Annie Ernaux
Welcome to Paper & Parfum
Perfume and literature live where language meets emotion, acting silently and unexpectedly as transportive portals. While words linger in the mind, perfume sticks to the skin. A line can reopen a wound; a scent can summon a decade. Both carry memory, often without permission. I find that fragrance clings like honey to time, pulling us somewhere we don’t always expect to return.
Welcome to my series of pairing Paper & Parfum; because sometimes the most intimate stories aren’t just read—they’re scented.1
Scents of Awakening: Perfumes to Accompany A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux
A Girl’s Story isn’t a coming of age tale, it’s an excavation. Ernaux dissects the memories of Summer in 1958 with the precision of a scalpel and the fragility of lace. At 18, she is sent to work as a camp counselor, entering the world as a young woman while still tethered to the naivety of girlhood. What unfolds is a story of seduction, shame, silence, and the irreversible moment when one crosses from unknowing into knowing. Marked by confusion, vulnerability, and shame Ernaux carefully splits her life into before and after.
A Girl’s Story becomes a refusal to romanticize and a demand to revisit the girl she was with the eyes of the woman she became. The narrative walks a tightrope between distance and immersion, as Ernaux searches for the truth she can never quite forgive or fully understand.
The book is less a linear memoir and more a forensic emotional landscape about the way women remember themselves. The way girlhood is often shaped by desire, silence, observation. The way we try on versions of womanhood like perfume samples never sure what will stick.
Each carefully selected fragrance captures a layer of A Girl’s Story: the fresh innocence of arrival, the swelling chaos of infatuation, the ache of humiliation, and the solitude of reflection.
So here’s a little pairing of Paper & Parfum to wear while reading A Girl’s Story (or simply while reflecting on the ghosts of your younger self).
For the Innocence of Arrival ~ Guerlain Mitsouko (1919)
Notes: Bergamot, Peach, Jasmine, rose, Patchouli, Oakmoss, Vetiver
Why it fits: Mitsouko is a study in contradictions: ripe peach softened by dusky oakmoss and radiance smoldering beneath restraint. It's the scent of something held back and almost cracking. This echoes the emotional restraint of Ernaux’s prose and the underlying intensity of her subject. Mitsouku smells like the weight of not knowing what you're about to become.
The blend of fruity and earthy notes evokes the tension between innocence and experience, mirroring Ernaux’s journey of self-discovery. It’s mysterious and composed, like someone watching themselves from a distance. Worn while reading, Mitsouko captures the moment before a life changes and the stillness before surrender.
Alternatives: Chanel EDP, Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia layered with Woodsage & Sea Salt, Roja Dove Reckless Pour Femme
For The Swelling Chaos of Infatuation ~ Le Labo Lys 41
Notes: Jasmine, Tuberose, Lily, Musk, Vanilla
Why it fits: A contemporary white floral with creamy richness and intimacy. Lys 41 is lush but never loud. While not aldehydic, it captures the grand, enveloping feeling of Arpège. Lys embodies the richness of youthful emotions and the complexity of growing up. The narcotic mix feels romantic and decadent, but there's an ache under the surface. It almost smells like trying on womanhood before you’re ready.
Lys’s elegant floral composition resonates with the introspective and emotional depth of Ernaux’s narrative. The creamy floral notes evoke the naivety of young desire and how overwhelming even the idea of being wanted can feel. Lys 41 smells like the moment you realize someone’s looking at you differently and the confusion that follows.
Alternatives: Chanel No. 5, Maison Margiela Bubble Bath, Kayali Deja Vu White Flower 57
For the Solitude of Reflection ~ Diptyque Do Son
Notes: Tuberose, Orange Blossom, Jasmine, Marine Accord
Why it fits: If Lys 41 is the overwhelming heat of emotion, Do Son is its ghost. Airier, salt-kissed, and more transparent: this scent conjures memory more than immediacy. It’s a white floral in retreat wearing as a fragrance that is less about presence and more about the echo.
As Ernaux reconstructs her past with analytic grace, Do Son becomes the perfect olfactory companion: haunting, lovely, but never cloying. It smells like remembering a kiss decades later—cooler, but no less alive.
Do Son is a clean airy scent that is ideal if you want something evocative but soft enough for daily wear. This fragrance captures the intensity of youthful passion and the rawness of first experiences. Its powerful sillage and sensual notes reflect the memoir’s exploration of desire and vulnerability. It feels like walking away from something with the scent still clinging to your clothes.
Alternatives: Gucci Bloom (original), YSL Libre
To read Ernaux while wearing one of these selections is to let the book breathe with you while you turn the page and feel a shift in the air.
A Girl’s Story reminds us how fragile and formative the early moments of womanhood can be, how much we forget, and how much we never really do.
These perfumes aren’t just meant to match Ernaux’s story. They’re meant to walk beside it. To sit with you while you read. To make the invisible emotional terrain feel a little more tangible. So spray generously, read slowly, and let the lines between fiction, memory, and identity blur a little.
After all, isn’t that what girlhood feels like?
Thank you for reading this selection of Paper & Parfum. If you enjoyed, feel free to add the series on Instagram to follow the Soft Notes unofficial book club.
Images sourced from Pinterest and carefully curated into collages.