I really liked the “split personality” characteristic of this shot. The old architecture of the Louvre at the top, the modern architecture at the bottom. When I first saw pictures of the glass pyramid, I was somewhat aghast, offended almost at how the ultra modern construction contrasted with the gorgeous, classic architecture of the past. However, having been there and seen the two, I have to admit that “it works”, almost stunningly so. It did raise my appreciation of what the architects must have gone through in designing this. Hats off to them!

The Louvre is a fabulous place where you can lose yourself for hours, if not days. Linda and I stayed in a hotel nearby and first checked it out on a Sunday, only to be blown away by the number of people waiting in line to enter. Quite off-putting and we stayed clear of this place until several days later when, during the week, it was a pleasure to visit. You are allowed to bring your cameras which was a real treat and we spent many hours enjoying, not just the art on display, but the magnificent building itself.

If you ever go to Paris, make sure you include a trip to the Louvre, but try and avoid the weekend.

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This is a view looking towards the North West. That cluster of tall buildings is the main business sector of Paris, called La Defense and is the largest purpose-built business district in Europe. Those gardens are the Jardins du Trocadero and that big structure that curves around the gardens is the Palais de Chaillot. It stands on a hill that used to be the site of a small village. The East and West wings of the structure now house several museums: The Naval Museum, The Museum of Man, the Museum of Architecture and the Museum of French Monuments, none of which we got to see.

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I feel this picture sums it all up beautifully. The river of course is the Seine and on the left is THE famous Notre-Dame de Paris also known as the Notre Dame Cathedral. I’m sure you all know that Notre Dame de Paris means “Our Lady of Paris”.

There are many famous films that are set in Paris. A few that come to mind include “An American in Paris with Gene Kelly and music of George Gershwin”, Walt Disney’s “Aristocats”, “The Pink Panther 2” and of course, “Ratatouille”. And I am sure there are many more.

The Notre Dame survived the French Revolution in the 1790s, but only just as many of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. Some very historic events occurred here at this cathedral. The Third Crusade was announced here way back in 1185 and it is also the place that saw the coronation ceremony of Napoleon.

Anyway, Paris is a wonderful place to stroll around and enjoy the sites, like Linda and I did on this day.

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The Arc stands in the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as the Place l‘Etoile. It is a really large roundabout, with lots of traffic and no less than 12 major roads coming together. Trying to cross this roundabout would be madness so there are tunnels that take you from the sidewalks into the center of the roundabout.

It turned out that our Museum Pass provided entry into the Arc itself. This means you can climb this seemingly endless spiral staircase to the top (see below – hand held). I did not count the steps, but it took forever – believe me on this. The views are of course magnificent, but . . . . no tripods allowed! This makes it so much harder to get decent night shots.

The Arc is huge, so large in fact that in 1919, Charles Godefroy flew his bi-plane through it.

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This was taken on a Saturday night and the crowds were just amazing. I have shots taken closer, but (a) my wide angle lens (17mm on my full frame Canon 5D) was just not wide enough and (b) dispite the long exposures (which usually makes moving subject invisible), I could not get a clean shot. So I backed up and used the green hedge as a barrier to hide all the people.

So how did I do? This place is awesome, by day as well as by night.

I’ll admit to being somewhat mystified as to why someone would build such a modern structure here, in contrast with this magnificent old architectural gem of a building. I guess because of exactly that, the contrast. Also, it seems to grow on you after a while and eventually feels “it fits”. Anyway, it makes for some great photographic adventure as there is no limit to the compositions and mixtures of texture that can be shot in this courtyard.

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The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution.

The rooms are simply amazing, the most spectacular being the Hall of Mirrors (Galerie des Glaces), the setting for many of the ceremonies of the French Court.

One of the things that struck me in particular were the wonderful ceilings. Every room was different! Sometimes the ceilings were covered in spectacular paintings, others has wonderful architectural features, etc.

The one in the picture below is an example. Just one room of many. Amazing the work that must have gone into this. They certainly do not build them like that anymore!

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I had just spent some time shooting the Louvre and the little Arc de Triomphe (see previous post) and decided to wander on and cross the river. The sky was magnificent although not a lot of color. Doing HDR shots of scenes with lots of sky can be a challenge as you’ll often get a lot of noise. This shot was one of those and presented an excellent opportunity to try the recently upgraded Topaz Denoise 4. It did an excellent job as you can see.

About this shot. Right in the center of the picture, you can see the top of the Eiffel Tower. The building in front of that is the Musee D’Orsay, which is housed in a former railway station. The museum is famous as it holds the largest collection of impressionist master pieces in the world. Linda and I wanted to visit this museum too, but we just totally ran out of time. How sad is that!

This is the left bank of the river Seine and the bridge you see there is the Pont Royal (I am standing on the Pont du Carrousel).

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Linda dragged me up to the top of the Eiffel Tower one evening. Yes, all the way up to that section you see here in this picture. Did I enjoy the ride? No, not one bit. Was I pleased I went? Absolutely! (Thank you Linda for making me do it). We got some wonderful night shots from the top and I’m sure I’ll be posting them in due course. The views are simply amazing, albeit bloody scary.

At the top, you arrive in an enclosed area which is surprising large for something that looks so tiny from the ground (that should tell you how high this thing is). The views from this area are mightily impressive as you can imagine you can see for miles in all direction. The French even posted little signs around the area of well known cities and how many miles away they were from that spot. The scariest part was going outside. You see, there is another section at the top that is open, sure it has a steel mesh fence, but it is still open. Needless to say, Linda just had to get me out onto that section as well. And because of the mesh, I had to go right to the edge to stick my lens through to get any worthwhile shots. Standing THAT high up and THAT close to the edge is a very humbling experience, believe me.

Other than the scary part, the experience was exhilarating and photographically rewarding. This shot below was taken from the second tier, which is only about one third up. Every hour, on the hour, the Eiffel Tower puts on a light show with thousands of blinking lights putting on quite a display.

During the weekends and summer vacation days, the Eiffel Tower can get as many as 30,000 visitors (in one day!). Linda and I can attest to this as we came here on a Saturday and found the lines for tickets to be miles long. We came back on a Tuesday evening (in May so no school vacation) and stood in line for a mere 5 minutes.

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In fact, you can see it on this picture.

If you look through the arch, you can see the obelisk on the Place de la Concorde. Behind that the Arc de Triomphe and those tall buildings in the background is La Defense, the business district of Paris. You are looking right through the Tuileries Gardens and the Champs Elysees. One straight line. It is about 5 miles long. Cool.

This shot was taken at about 6am on a weekday. You can tell because there are no people. During the day, there are hundreds of people here and on the weekends, the place is positively swarming.

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