Notes de bas de Paje
Footnotes (english for “notes de bas de page”) clarify, explain and detail what is said in the body of the text. They provide useful references for understanding the story.
The interpretation of the story differs according to whether or not you take the time to read the footnotes. If you do, you enter the world being told and understand the details. On the other hand, we're content with a raw story, however beautiful it may seem on the surface, without ever knowing what's being said between the lines.
In human relations, the difference between an interaction and a relationship, between an acquaintance and a friend, between a flirtation and a love affair, is the unveiling of details, explanations and secrets. It's about whether or not to give people the chance to find out more. In books, as in life, reading footnotes is a way of extricating ourselves from superficial knowledge.
A footnote is like the smell of a perfume. It evokes an object, a plant, a material, a memory, a place, a person. It translates into intelligible terms what is contained in the perfume's chemical formula. It's the note that lets us guess, even before we smell it, what the perfume will be like.
Paje is the phonetic mix of "page", our initials and the hyphen that binds us together: the "et" (french for “and”) that is so dear to us. The "et" that makes us a duo: Pierre-Jr et Alice. Because our fragrances are the footnotes to our respective stories, and to the one we've started to write together.
We see life as a book, as a series of pages, as a story in several chapters that unfolds as time goes by. We can never really predict what will happen, even when we read the epilogue... Unless we immerse ourselves in the pages of the book, identify with the characters, immerse ourselves in the descriptions and rely on the footnotes when the terms are a priori foreign to us.
Each period of life corresponds to a chapter in the book. Sometimes it's a continuation of the previous one, sometimes a complete break with it. Sometimes it's the unexpected arrival of a character after hundreds of pages. Sometimes it's the sudden loss of another character after we've only turned a few pages.
Notes de bas de Paje is the title of the story we are writing in smells. Ours. Yours. The one made up of moments lived together or separately, people met, trials and decisions made.
Alice Et Pierre-Jr
