The First Few Days in Paris

After a packed day in Dublin, we arrived in Paris around 10 pm.  This was my fourth time visiting Paris and the third time at Vijay’s apartment in the 16th arrondissement, so it always feels comfy when I get there.   Bryan and I should have gotten to sleep immediately, but the draw of wine, cheese, fresh baguette and friends I haven’t seen in a while won out.

A good night of sleep followed by an excellent Parisian brunch of eggs, pain au chocolat, croissant buerre, honey, jams, baguette and Nepali tea zapped my jet lag and spurred me to get out of the apartment for a walk.  Christie and I went to an area I had never been to before (took line 2 to the Colonel Fabien stop) and spent the day walking down the Canal Saint-Martin talking and taking pictures before stopping in a cafe for an afternoon drink.

Apartments near the Colonel Fabian metro

 Tourist boats navigating the the canal locks and trains as we got off the metro

I’ll do a little “equipment” blog post later, but for this trip I brought my tripod with me as well as borrowing a 10 stop ND filter.  Having a tripod with me was probably one of the best decisions I made, and it allowed me to play around with the ND filter and daytime long exposures.  I did a few in Dublin, but this first walk in Paris I was able to try a bunch more.  These are all on the Canal Saint-Martin.

We ran into these kids on the way home and when I pointed my camera at them they defended themselves quickly, “C’est public!”.  I guess in my older age I look too much like “the man”…when all I wanted to do was get a shot of them 🙂

That night it rained and we ducked into a cozy little Italian restaurant for dinner.  The food and wine were excellent as was my mascarpone créme that I had for dessert.  Christie spent most of the next morning preparing a wonderful Nepali lunch, in which I was made to eat traditionally, with one hand and no utensils :).  After lunch, Christie and I headed over to the Marias to meet some friends and I grabbed a few more shots when I could.  We passed an open air book market and then up to a bridge over the Seine near Île Saint-Louis.

The next morning I got up early and worked out like I did every morning.  I wish I had taken a video of myself doing burpees in front of the Arc de Triomphe.  Eddy arrived that morning and we went out for a decent lunch and walked from Vijay’s place up to the Arc and down the Champs-Élysées, met Vijay for a drink and then continued our photo walk through the Tuileries Gardens and hung out near Concorde messing around with long exposures and time lapses before making our way back home.

Sitting in the middle of the Champs-Élysées trying to take long exposures may not be the safest thing in the world, but I love this shot!

Next up, day trips to Brussels and Amsterdam!