Pretty Paris Pictures : Night Seine

Again out on an evening stroll along the Seine, I once more found myself armed with my camera, and free to capture as many shots as my greedy eyes so desired. I have said it before, and I’ll repeat myself over and over, Paris is beautiful during the day (especially when the sun is going at full blast), but NOTHING beats Paris at night. A special glow falls upon her just after the sunset.

I frame all my shots, and take them WITHOUT a tripod. I don’t even edit them, except for a tiny bit of cropping occasionally if my framing is a tad off, but that’s it. I like to keep my images pretty “au naturel” and not doctor them up with a lot of image editing. (Plus that’s time consuming), so I take great care in each shot, I do a lot of breath holding to keep my camera from jiggling when I press the trigger, and I use the functions on my camera do add or subtract light.

Taking pictures (although I do NOT claim to be that good) and my subject (Paris) are two of my favorite things, and when I put them together, I feel giddy with delight. I hope you like them…

Own (a piece of) the Eiffel Tower

Paul Bedell of Korbella™ contacted me, and with one single sentence he had my full attention : “From our pieces of Paris to yours”. These are my pieces of Paris… but… What are his?

Small, wonderful, almost magical little “jewels” cut from an actual piece of the Eiffel Tower, and integrated into stylish and elegant pieces of fashion jewelry in sterling silver, vermeil (gold plated silver) or rhodium. Paul wanted to generously offer me a piece for review, because he felt that his jewelry line and concept fit perfectly with my site. He couldn’t have been more right.

The Paris Money Can’t Buy #PricelessParis

This past summer I was invited to the Rolland Garros opening day by Happy Curious (a PR, communications and social intelligence firm) and Mastercard France for their project Priceless Paris. The goal was to offer a “priceless” moment to a selected bunch of Parisians (and I happened to be one of them! Lucky me!). But the project was more than just an afternoon of tennis. Happy Curious spent the Summer concocting and conducting a study for Mastercard on what Parisians feel are priceless moments in the city of light.

Happy Curious soirée for their MasterCard Priceless Paris study results

And so I was invited recently to a dinner at the Chambre des Oiseaux restaurant (a darling place with REAL homemade food, that I will surely return to) with a group of Paris bloggers for the revealing of the results of the study. What was discovered surprised me. I was heading to the dinner expecting to hear all sorts of “priceless Paris moments” that were full of wildly opulent desires and luxurious memories, costly events and exclusive venues. But no, the Parisian is much more simple than I had judged…the Parisian appreciates that which money cannot buy. My faith in the Parisian has hence been restored. 🙂

Photo : Léna Balacco de La Chambre aux Oiseaux)

Paris, the city of holiday lights!

Merry Christmas, Joyeux noël, happy holidays everyone!

The individuals of the city might not be decorative elves like they are in New England (where I grew up) but the city of Paris certainly makes an effort as a whole. Some streets are just draped in holiday lighting of all colors and one street even has music playing softly on speakers (bd de Reuilly). How nice!

Enjoy these shots by the talented Allison Herbert…(all rights reserved)