Why we wrote a book about dolls ?
"You're probably going to think I'm ridiculous..."
We have heard that phrase hundreds of times.
Over the phone.
By email.
At the turn of a conversation that almost always began in the same way.
Then came a silence.
And behind that silence, a confidence.
A woman who told us about the doll she had dreamed of as a child and never been able to have.
Another who hid her collection from her colleagues for fear of being judged.
A man who kept buying dolls after his wife passed away, because they had become a reassuring presence in a house that had suddenly grown too quiet.
Every time, we thought we were talking about dolls.
In reality, we were talking about people.
For seventeen years, we mostly listened.
When we founded Un Bonheur de Colibri in 2009, we wanted to share beautiful dolls.
We never imagined that, seventeen years later, it would be the stories of their owners that would stay with us most deeply.
Thousands of dolls have passed through our hands. We chose them with care. Unwrapped them with emotion.
Wrapped them again with just as much attention before they made their way to their new homes.
But it is not their faces we have held onto.
It is the voices, the hesitations, the bursts of joy, the small words slipped into an email, the confidences that were never quite planned.
Over the years, we came to understand something essential. A doll is almost never just an object.
She becomes the witness to a memory, a dream, an absence, a promise one makes to oneself.
Sometimes even a form of repair.
And yet... This passion is still so often misunderstood.
"Are you still playing with dolls?"
"Aren't you a little old for that?"
These words are not always spoken with unkindness.
But they often leave a mark. It is precisely that mark we wanted to explore.
Gradually, the subject changed. And so did the book.
When we first began working on this project, we had something quite different in mind. We imagined a guide. A practical book. Perhaps something that would tell the history of dolls, their makers, the different families of collecting, or offer a few pieces of advice.
Then, very quickly, we understood we were on the wrong path.
With every chapter, we kept returning to the same questions :
Why do certain dolls move us so deeply?
Why does a collection sometimes become a silent autobiography?
Why do we struggle so much to explain what we feel when someone simply asks: "Why dolls?"
It was no longer about explaining dolls.
It was about listening to those who love them.
And so I Love Dolls... What This Passion Says About Us came into being.
One woman accompanied us throughout the writing of this book.
Her name is Martine.
Martine is not a heroine.
She is not a fictional character.
She is an encounter.
A woman in whom dozens of readers will probably recognise something of themselves.
As a child, she gazed at shop windows with wonder.
As an adult, she long believed it was too late to live this passion.
Then one day... she allowed herself that happiness.
In writing her story, we came to understand that Martine was ultimately speaking about far more than dolls. She speaks of time passing, of dreams endlessly postponed, of that small inner voice that sometimes tells us we are "too old", "too sensible" or "not entitled".
Martine reminds us that it is never too late to find a lost part of oneself.
And that is perhaps why she holds such a particular place in this book.
What will you find in these pages?
We would rather not tell you everything. Because some discoveries deserve to be lived as you read.
But you will encounter, among others...
A woman who finds, through a doll, a part of herself she thought she had lost.
A husband who continues a collection born of love.
Collectors who still do not dare speak of their passion.
Childhood memories that resurface without warning.
And a question that runs quietly through the entire book: What do dolls ultimately say about those who choose them?
Throughout the pages, you will also find reflections on memory, transmission, contemplation, care, nostalgia, the psychology of objects and the way a passion can sometimes become a language when words no longer suffice.
A few phrases have stayed with us long after the writing was done.
"A collection is sometimes a silent autobiography."
"We do not always choose a doll. Sometimes, it is the doll that seems to have been waiting for us."
"This book does not seek to explain your passion. It seeks to do it justice."
This book changed us.
We thought we knew our craft.
We thought we sold dolls.
In writing these pages, we understood that we have always accompanied people who are trying to preserve something precious.
A memory, a presence, an emotion, a way of continuing to love.
Even today, when we prepare a parcel, we no longer see simply an order. We imagine the person who will open that box, the smile that may appear, the memory that may return.
And we tell ourselves that our work has always been a little greater than we realised.
What we hope for when you close this book.
We do not hope that you will know everything about dolls.
We hope for something else entirely.
We hope you will feel understood.
That you will finally find the words you have sometimes been searching for over many years.
Or, on the contrary, that you will understand a little better someone you love.
Because offering this book to someone who is passionate about dolls is not simply giving them a book. It is saying to them: "I wanted to understand what this passion means to you."
And there is probably no more beautiful gift than that.
And if this book were also, a little, yours...
If you have been collecting dolls for years...
If you have sometimes struggled to explain this passion...
If you recognised yourself, even just a little, in these few lines...
Then we believe this book was written for you.
And if you know someone who loves dolls, without ever having found the words to say why...
Give them this book.
It may not teach them anything new about dolls.
But it might teach them something essential about themselves.
Alexandra & Emmanuel
If these words have resonated with you, the book is waiting.
Discover our e-book (only available in digital format on our website): I love dolls... What this passion says about us
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