Highlights from a week in Paris
Paris is beautiful - but this is not news.
I'm guessing you know the name of this place, right?
galleries vivienne, which is a short stroll from the louvre, and quite beautiful.
looking out over trocadero from the eiffel tower
Back in November of last year, I was in France (Montpellier, specifically) on business and from there had some meetings in Paris to attend to as well. Having a family that also likes traveling (and really, who DOESN’T want to travel to Paris?) resulted in a family trip to Paris during Thanksgiving Week. I flew up from Montpellier as they flew in from the US, and we spent a wonderful week exploring one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
And it was the perfect time to go.
St severin church in the latin quarter - so awesome, and empty!!
the interesting and unique centre Pompidou, with the electrical and plumbing systems on the outside. very cool.
inside la conciergerie, which is where marie antoinette was imprisoned.
Not only was it not crowded, but the weather was nice and cool and since it was the off-season, the rates on accommodations were very reasonable. I can definitely recommend that time of year for visiting Paris, but then again, anytime you can get to Paris is a good time!
So we spent a week there exploring all sorts of wonderful spots, from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower, out to Versailles and back to the Moulin Rouge, and many more stops along the way. And it seemed like every stop was more wonderful than the last. But then again, Paris is that way. It seems there is something beautiful at every turn, and as a photographer that makes it very hard to get anywhere! I would literally shoot something, walk 10 steps, and shoot something else. It's pretty annoying for the rest of the family. :-)
Surprisingly, we did make it to a lot of places though, and no, I do not have a favorite. There’s just WAY too much goodness to go around. The whole city is my favorite. It's that good.
hotel de ville, looking all spooky and stuff.
walking in the jardin du luxembourg, which is fabulous even in the late fall.
When we returned home, I hastily loaded all the photos into my library, processed quite a few, and then added a bunch to my list of the best places to shoot in Paris. My intent was to then produce a blog post outlining all these spots, but guess what? I got busy thinking about (and working on) my plans for 2015 (and I will update you on those real soon), and it was almost the holidays, and I was thinking about how to take better photos in the new year, and I was looking back on 2014, and I had some more travels...and I never did it.
Bad Jim.
Heck, I even put them into my France set on Flickr, and my France portfolio on SmugMug. But they never made it here. I’m easily distracted, I guess. :-)
les deux magots cafe in st germain, which is where hemingway and friends used to hang out.
les invalides, where you can find napoleon's tomb as well as an incredible museum of the world wars.
you've heard of locks of love on the bridge in paris, right? more like on just about every bridge in paris!
So here I am, about 7 months later, sharing with you some highlights from Paris, which I captured there back in November of last year. I’m clearly not going to win any awards for promptness, am I? And quite obviously, I am not doing things in chronological order here. That's kinda boring, anyways. I find it more fun to mix it up.
A lot of blogs that I read are chronological, and I can completely understand why. They go somewhere, share the pics and stories from the trip, and move on. And I think if I was a total nomad all the time, I would do the same. But I am not, and I don't want to be. I like dipping back into the archives and working on and sharing photos from trips that have happened months ago...or even years ago.
Well, better late than never, so here it is, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed being there and taking them - which is quite a lot, I can tell you for sure!
And these are not in any particular order - it's just a somewhat random assortment of photos from Paris. They are just photos that I liked, and I thought you might like them too! Enjoy!
Thanks for stopping by!
standing outside moulin rouge just before it started raining on me.
the ceiling inside the main hall of the opera garnier, which is so lavish and ornate that it looks fake. But this is what it looks like. Honest.
the ferris wheel and the egyptian obelisk at the place de la concorde, which is sort of near the louvre. looks great at blue hour right?!
pont alexander iii, which stretches over the river seine and leads to les invalides, which is the dome you see in the background.
late night on rue mouffetard, which is in the latin quarter. I just like street scenes like this. so I shot a bunch of them.
this is along rue st severin, taken one evening at dusk.
this is shakespeare & co bookstore, which is about 100 yards from notre dame cathedral and well worth a visit!
the sorbonne is a well-known university that sits in the latin quarter of paris. I stopped here for some shots while walking home one evening.
st etienne du mont, which is basically behind the pantheon. I found this on accident, because I was trying to shoot the pantheon but it was covered in scaffolding and was closed, and then I saw this peeking out from behind. glad i took the time to investigate!!
the entry courtyard at the palace of versailles. well worth the 40 minute train ride from central paris! we spent a day here and i can tell you it is amazingly beautiful. i have a million pics to go process, now that I think about it!
this is inside the natural history museum. all those lights change colors so you get a free light show plus some wonderful architecture to shoot!
this is inside a department store known as gallerie lafayette. basically, it's a big upside-down bejeweled christmas tree. you don't see that everyday!
