Tony and I have been to Paris before. You can read that four part blog series starting with THIS link!
Last time we were in Paris we saw EVERYTHING. We did EVERYTHING. And we FROZE! This trip was a polar opposite.
The thing that brought us back to Paris in the first place, or rather our excuse for returning to one of our favorite places was the Paris Marathon. Tony signed up to run the race which was on April 10th and then we decided to extend the vacation to also include my birthday on April 16th! Tony and I were joined in Paris by two other friends, one who’s stationed in Germany and we had not seen in almost two years!
Since this was nobody’s first trip, everyone in our group had already visited most of the major sites. That meant this trip was more about experiencing life in Paris. On this trip we perfected the french term of ‘la flânerie’. To Flaner is to stroll with no purpose and that’s exactly what we did for a week in Paris. We had very little commitments, appointments or reservations so a majority of the time there was just spent doing whatever we felt like that day. We would wake up, stroll on over to the coffee shop and grab some breakfast. Then it was either out to lounge around in the grass watching the bustling city go by or do some shopping. We brought our cameras out with us for sunrise photos of our favorite monuments and then again at sunset. We came to Paris with a list of shots that we wanted and did what we could to execute those! This was the perfect relaxing week that we really needed! I hope you enjoy this look at an alternative (photographers) trip to The City of Light.
You’ll see the most interesting things in Paris. Just pick a spot, stand there and see the diverse people come by.
Let me tell you guys. Waking up at 4am on vacation is not fun. Especially when you were up until after midnight the night before. But seeing the eiffel tower in the wee hours of the morning without the lights on is pretty awesome. I always like to take at least one morning per vacation to wake up super early, stake out a spot in town and watch the streets go from empty to packed. Seeing a city wake up and come to life is amazing and seriously energizes you! And for those of you who are into photography, you know that there’s nothing quite like nailing that sunrise shot!
… and of course you can never have too many photos of the Eiffel Tower.