Doorways of Paris: an Instagrammer captures the colour of the City of Light

她Instagram始于paraphr的墓志铭ased version of this famous quote by American singer, songwriter, and poet Jim Morrison, lead singer of the band Doors: There are things you know about, and things you don't, the known and the unknown, and in between are the doors.

Architectural Digest (AD): How did it all begin? Racquel Puig (RP): One evening, like any other evenings in the city, around April 2016, my husband Vincent and I went for a stroll around our Parisian neighbourhood. Halfway through, he stopped in front of a building and said: Look, such a gorgeous door! And indeed, it was. A few days later, something had clicked in my head, can't really say why, but I started taking pictures of doors here and there, as a humble way to capture the Parisian beauty. That's when I decided to open an Instagram account, as a lovely way to share the timeless gallery of doors I was starting to accumulate. I was completely fascinated by then!

AD: What's your fascination with doors? RP: Each door tells a story, a unique one. If you walk enough a neighbourhood, you will soon realise the similar traits about its doors, and you feel they really belong to where they were built. The doors have become like my own private city guides—guides who know everything, have seen everything, and whisper of what is yet to come.

AD: How do you go about taking photos—is it planned, do you read about the history of the neighbourhood, and talk to the owners? RP: I try to keep this moment as unplanned as possible, as I think that's the best way to have a fresh look and to have the chance to be surprised by the doors you find.

I tend to like to read about the neighbourhoods beforehand and about the Frenchmen who built the city we live in today, such as Haussmann or Art Nouveau's master, J. Lavirotte. Also, along the way, I have encountered random, wonderful people who have told me stories about their neighbourhoods, the history of doors they have seen, and the future they hope to see.

AD: Do you get requests from homeowners to feature their doorways on your account? RP: Indeed. I love the engagement the account is getting. I get friends, random people on the street or even private messages via the Instagram or Facebook account, from people that want to share with me a lovely door they have seen and think it would be a gorgeous idea to share it to the account.

AD: Do you travel outside Paris and take photos of doorways? RP: I think now it has become inevitable. Each time we walk around a city, my eyes go directly towards the doors. Without realising it, I have begun to collect a new set of door pics, especially from Barcelona and Lisbon, two impressive European cities when it comes to doorways.

AD: What's next? RP: I am excited about the book version ofDoorways of Paristhat will be released this September 2017. I wanted to make sure I was capturing a nice sample of doors of each arrondissement, so a lot of planning went into it.