The idea to travel somewhere for a photoshoot started to form over a cup of tea back in Cambridge the day after the Dancing in the Rain photoshoot. We had originally talked about going to Iceland, but as the weather there was rumoured to be a bit unreliable in September, we opted to go to Paris instead. Two and a half months later Annie Magee, Lucy McMahon, Genevieve McMahon and I converged on Paris, all by different routes.
We had found this amazing little apartment on AirBNB, which had a rooftop terrace with a view of the Eiffel Tower. It was the perfect spot for a late night dinner, with the lights on the Eiffel Tower flashing in the background. Our plan for Saturday took form. We had prepared a map with different interesting locations on Google Maps, and as some of those could be quite crowded, we decided to start early, setting the alarm for 6:00 in the morning.
Our first stop was Palais de Chaillot which has a beautiful view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower as the centre piece. When I had passed Trocadéro the night before it had been buzzing with people, but in the early morning hours it was relatively quiet.
One of the reasons we started so early was that the weather report had indicated that Saturday would have great weather, while Sunday would give us rain and possibly a thunderstorm. So we wanted to see as much as possible on our first day.
On the steps of Palais de Chaillot overlooking Paris we ran into three wedding photographers each taking photos of their respective couple. One of them had brought bird food, and his assistant was repeatedly luring the pigeons in, only to scare them off so that the photographer could get a photo with them taking off. This looked amazing, so of course we wanted to try something similar, but the only thing we could find at this hour was a sugary doughnut at a nearby food stall, which the pigeons rejected. Note to future self: if we ever make it back here for a photoshoot, bring pigeon food and come really early.
As we were taking photos by the steps down to the park, a wedding photographer approached us and politely asked how long we were planning to use the spot. We offered them the location on the spot if we could take a few photos afterwards with the bride’s beautiful wedding bouquet, not really expecting anything in return, but to our surprise the bride agreed.
In the background of the photo above you can see the concrete pool that was now drained of water. We decided to head there, then after that go looking for a place to have breakfast.
There are so many photos that we have decided to split it up into multiple blog posts.
You can read part two “Paris when it sizzles” here, and part three “We will always have Paris” here.
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