3 Days in Paris A short photographic journey by Damien Jackson
Introduction On the 11th November 2015, a friend and fellow camera club member from Waterford Camera Club and I flew to Paris for 3 days for a whirlwind tour of the photography hotspots. We had planned meticulously using maps, videos, websites etc and finally came up with about 28 ‘spots’ in the city we wanted to get some shots! I think we got to 5 or 6 of those...ambitious to say the least! The weather was kind to us and to be honest the city is a photographers dream. The problem is pulling yourself away from one spot to move to the next when you know you’re tight on time! What follows are some photographs of our time spent roaming the city from early morning to late nights making the most of our time there. Sadly on our last night, the tragic events of Friday 13th November unfolded just a a few kilometres from us as we watched it all happen live on TV in a restaurant. Our thoughts and prayers go to all effected by those terrible events in such a beautiful city. I hope you enjoy the photographs, I certainly enjoyed taking them and thanks to Tom for great company along the way.
Cover Photo: The Eiffel Tower taken from the top of the Montparnesse building. Every hour on the hour the Tower lights up for 5 minutes even more spectacularly than usual. Sparkling lights are imposed over the standard golden lighting. There are 20,000 bulbs for the sparkling lights, 5,000 on each side and it took a team of 25 climbers 5 months to install them! Yes…It is a selfie!!!
Rear of Notre-Dame Cathedral taken from the rooftop of the Arab World Institute with the MĂŠmorial de la Deportation in the foreground.
Notre Dame at night with Pont de l’Archévé ‘(Love Lock’) bridge in the foreground. Lovers purchase locks, write their names on them and throw the key into the Seine to seal their eternal love!
The walkways along the banks of the Seine are pretty and lined with barges, local musicians, artisans etc and feel safe even at night.
The front and entrance to Notre Dame at dawn the next morning. As you can see we found it difficult to move away from the area and for November we were lucky with the beautiful sky. This is taken from Petit Pont. Rush hour traffic all round doesn’t impede on the tranquility of the scene.
Weather eroded gargoyles at the top of Notre -Dame Cathederal. Weather turned misty but to be honest there is so much tightly meshed netting and steel fencing at the top it would have been difficult or almost impossible to take a clear shot of the city from here. Probably not worth the 387 steps for photographers!
The bells, the bells!!! The bell at the top of Notre-Dame made famous in the old film Quasimodo for those of us old enough to remember it!
Located quite close to Notre Dame Cathedral is the building of the PrĂŠfecture de police de Paris, which provides the Police Force for Paris and 3 surrounding suburban areas. This is taken from street level along the Quai de Montebello, which is lined with booksellers and sellers of memorabilia during the day and early evenings.
A walk along the quays will bring you to the most famous bookstore in Paris ‘Shakespeare and Company’.
A little further up the quays on the corner of Rue De Bieure, a hire shop for scooters and bicycles immaculately presented and aligned outside the shop!
We decided we better start moving away from the Notre Dame area and crossed to the opposite side of the Seine to begin our walk toward the Louvre. November can be quiet in Paris as this waiter will agree! (Ideal for getting around to be honest!)
No queues at all for the Louvre, which I believe can be a couple of hours in summer so why not take a trip inside. Tripod police everywhere, took a chance in the the bottom left when I thought I was in the clear before being loudly admonished!!
Only room which was busy was the scrum to take a photo of Mona Lisa!
The courtyard of the Louvre, late afternoon.
The glass pyramid is particularly impressive at night
A quick Metro from the Louvre to the the Champs Elysees and we arrived at the Arc the Triomphe. Difficult to photograph lots of crowds, traffic (even in November). We went to the top, great views over Champs Elysees and Paris but the ‘tripod police’ were all over us so we did our best to take a few shots handheld at high ISO and move on.
Champs Elysees from the top of the Arc de Triomphe
Looking down the 284 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe
Next morning it was straight onto the Metro for 25 minute journey to Invalides station. This serves the Army Museum and also the burial place of Napoleon. In term
ms of photography, the Pont Alexandre III above was what was on our agenda. A beautiful ornate bridge over the Seine.
Pont Alexandre III with the Grand Palais in the background.
A walk along the river bank, obviously heading toward the Eiffel Tower
Tom hard at work, totally oblivious to me!
Another taken from the top of Montparnesse Tower. Our last photostop‌.an hour or so later we were having some food and a beer in a restaurant w
when the tragic events began to unfold‌