Royal Pavillon Etro 1989

One of those capitals of Europe that still stands a bit in the second row behind tourist heavyweights like Paris, Rome, or even London and Berlin is the Polish city of Warsaw. Nevertheless, there are wonderful places to explore there - at the melting point between cultural Central and Eastern Europe. One of them is Lazienki Park, the largest urban green space in Warsaw - located in the south of the so-called 'Trakt Królewski', the famous Royal Route, which consists of several representative streets - Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Nowy Swiat, and Aleje Ujazdowskie.

In Lazienki Park, there are temples, orangery, and water features. There is a theater on an island and semi-wild peacocks - and in the summer families, couples, skateboarders, and picnickers - just like in probably every park in the world. And yet it radiates a calmness and serenity and a strangely nostalgic old-fashionedness like a garden on a faded postcard - rediscovered in a box of forgotten treasures from an era that always seemed to have passed. There are quiet hollow paths next to well-trodden avenues, where one suddenly finds oneself completely alone in the midst of Warsaw - and in a completely different time.

A bit of nostalgic old-fashionedness and the feeling of unexpectedly rediscovering something thought to be lost are also characteristics of Etro's Royal Pavillon, even though it is not yet thirty years old. And although it is named after English gardens and not Polish ones, its old-fashioned floral quality and the formal greenery that surrounds this floral aspect fit wonderfully with a tradition of contemporary Poland, which can also be observed particularly on the green and colorful paths of Lazienki Park: in Poland, some (older) gentlemen still kiss the hands of some (older) ladies.

Whether one perceives hand-kissing as touching gallantry or as obsolete - and whether the hand-kiss can, will, and should hold in Poland of the Facebook/Twitter/Instagram generation - that may be debated. However, hand-kissing gallants (with white, pure batiste handkerchiefs - just in case a lady needed one) in the cool discreet darkness of Lazienki Park and hand-kissed ladies (with artificial violets on their lapels) are touching and nostalgic and very beautiful. And there are pavilions - whether royal or not - among the crunching gravel paths and old trees as well.

Conclusion: an old-fashioned floral fragrance full of weathered beauty and graceful gallantry. More one for dreaming than for the sober now and here.