So I was watching something earlier and came across the concept of La Belle Époque. It got me thinking about a few things. La Belle Époque, literally translated to ‘the Beautiful Era’ was one of those rare moments in history when everything seemed to glow a little brighter. Running from the 1870s up until the start of the First World War in 1914, it’s remembered as a time when Europe, and especially Paris, felt full of optimism, creativity, and exciting change.

Imagine Paris during this time: artists filling cafés with sketchbooks and arguments, dancers lighting up the Moulin Rouge, and the city buzzing with colour and movement. This was the age of Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, and Van Gogh, painters who completely changed how people saw the world. Art Nouveau was everywhere too, from those iconic curving Métro signs to posters by Alphonse Mucha that still feel modern today.

But it wasn’t just art that made the era special. Technology was racing ahead. The Eiffel Tower rose above the skyline as a symbol of bold new thinking. Electricity lit up the streets. Telephones, cars, and even early airplanes began appearing. Medicine made huge leaps forward thanks to pioneers like Louis Pasteur, and life in the cities became livelier and more modern with big department stores, fashion houses, and a growing café culture.

People look back on La Belle Époque with a lot of fondness, partly because it came just before the First World War changed Europe forever. There’s a sense of nostalgia attached to it; a feeling that this was a golden age of beauty, confidence, and culture, when Paris truly felt like the centre of the world.

This got me thinking of my ‘La Belle Époque’. I can remember it clearly, a few years ago. It felt like the puzzle had been completed and for once instead of me thinking that nothing was going to work out, it felt like everything was going to happen. I guess for me, my era didn’t last for long. But maybe that was not my era. Maybe the best is yet to come. I think we all have a habit of romanticising the past, or the future. But in the last year, I have learnt to romanticise my present. The here and now, which is all we have really.

I hope you all have your ‘La Belle Époque’ era or it comes to you soon.

With all my love,

Amina xo