Mrs Harris Goes To Paris - Paul Gallico

I did actually complete this book last week in time for our Paris In July experience but I am a little late in my posting...

Mrs Harris Goes To Paris would have to be described as a "delightful little book" - and I don't mean that to sound patronising - it's just the term that I feel best encapsulates this book for me.

Mrs Harris is a widowed woman living in London and working as a cleaning woman for wealthy families in the 1950's. One day while cleaning the bedroom of one of her client's she discovers in her wardrobe a piece of heaven - a Dior dress - and she falls in love;

There was no rhyme or reason for it, she would never wear such a creation, there was no place in her life for one. Her reaction was purely feminine. She saw it and she wanted it dreadfully. Something inside her yearned and reached for it as instinctively as an infant in the crib reaches at a bright object.

I've been there!! The pure materialistic joy of seeing and falling in love with a gorgeous item of clothing (or, as is often the case for me, a pair of shoes). I can't say that I have the means to purchase designer clothing but I do know the happy feeling I get from wearing my favourite pieces of clothing - they do bring me joy no matter how shallow and silly that might seem.

Mrs Harris is determined to have her own piece of Dior so she saves and saves and saves and sacrifices in order to be able to afford the dress that she dreams of and then jumps on a plane to Paris to find and buy her dress at the house of Dior.

It is wonderful to read about Mrs Harris' experiences in Paris, of course everything does not go smoothly - even when the dress is finally purchased - so the book is as much fun and adventure as it is a story about a woman buying a dress. As I was reading it I found it held a lot of similarities to Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day in the sense of a woman stepping outside her normal reality to have other experiences in her life.

A gorgeous little book to put a smile on any fashion lovers face!