Rising German model Smilla Osswald explores the carefree side of summer in Paris for WSJ Magazine’s summer digital issue. Photographer Lachlan Bailey [IG] captures ‘Simple Summer Styles with a French Twist’, including Isabel Marant chunky sweaters, Versace rose-colored tanks and knit crop tops from Ralph Lauren.

Dining alfresco in Paris is almost always an enchanting experience. Anastasia Barbieri give us a nudge to rock out wearing a Dolce & Gabbana’s belted black biker jacket or the clean slate of a white leather version from Celine by Hedi Slimane. A faux-fur jacket and velvet boots from Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello add a hint of mystique, with an eye towards fall style.

Reflecting on Paris this minute — ‘book smart’ comes to mind. Paris is a place for wandering and watching, for soaking up the atmosphere, for thinking new thoughts.

In these terrible moments for women in America, I am thinking about the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral and its inclusion of Lilith at the Portal of the Virgin:

Under the pillar, a bas-relief represents the story of Adam and Eve in three sequences: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (or earthly paradise), the temptation of Adam and original sin (the devil is represented under the form of Lilith, an alluring woman with a long serpent's tail) and the expulsion of the first men from the Garden of Eden.

When I was young and wandering into a new life in New York City, I published a journal ‘The Gospel According to Lilith’. In many ways Anne of Carversville became the 21st century vision of that early journal.

Lilith is a female figure in Mesopotamian and Judaic mythology, alternatively the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Eden for not complying with and obeying Adam.

Then monotheism — as defined in early Catholicism — created a new origination story for the human race, one without earlier goddesses who fought the requirement that they submit to men. In the new creation story, women were created out of Adam’s rib and they knew their place,

There are many reasons why Paris inspires me deeply. But acknowledging the reality of Lilith on Notre Dame Cathedral has motivated me more than words can convey is a French gift that I treasure deeply. You can track the restoration on this link.