Three days in Paris

Whenever I travel somewhere, I always take my camera with me and try to find the time to photograph. I then bring those images home and share my favourites with whoever is willing to look at them here on this blog. I don’t know if this is a common feeling, but I often have the same nagging thought – “did I capture the character of the place?” I always worry whether the images I present also convey the feeling of the place, the feeling that I had when I was there taking those photographs.

Back in March of this year, Mila and I had a special three days in Paris. The photographs in this blog (and in the video at the bottom of this post) go some way to record that wonderful time that we had. Not being a native Parisian, it’s hard for me to say whether even a small part of the essence of Paris did make it into these images.

Personally, when I do look back at these images, I do get the feeling of being back in Paris, followed by the yearning to go back again – so that must count for something, I guess.

There are spectacular landmarks scattered all around Paris, and even in three days we had we did not visit them all. Of course, all these famous landmarks demand to be visited and photographed, and deservedly so, but our inclination is to decide what we want to do most, take our time and visit those few places and do them well. This is preference to rushing around trying to see everything but understand or, worse, not remembering anything of the city. You come away with an illusion of it instead, which quickly withers and fades.

So we did not see all the sites there are to see in Paris, but what we did see we enjoyed and absorbed as much as we could. It really pays to slow down and look around you, to really experience the place you are visiting. You’ll see, and remember, more than you expected you would.

We left with the understanding that there is more to this great city than just towers, churches, cafés and a river. There is colour, a ‘sense of style’, diversity, art, and pride in all of the above, with this reflected in the people who inhabit the city. The two are one, you just need to slow down and look to recognise this.

There are many more images from this trip, too many to show here in this blog, so I made a slideshow of some of my favourite images:

At almost 10 minutes, it’s probably too long… sorry!
(but I still hope you like it!)