Parisians may grumble about them, but then tourists grumble about Parisians, so it’s only fair! 
But I’ll let you in on a little secret… Paris loves its tourists! Really??? you ask? Well, it’s only because they bring an enourmous amount of business to a country that is leaning more and more towards a services industry. Besides luxury, tourism is one of France’s big resources. +70% of the active populatin works in the service industry, which includes everything related to tourism. And Paris, being the most visited city in the world, really needs to open up its heart to tourists. We need them.
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Paris Loves Tourists!
Sun In The City with eParisiennes
A couple of months ago, I helped out Kasia Dietz and presented her bags at a promotional soirée given by the PR agency Willina (run by two of the most fabulous Parisian bloggers around! Sheily of Paris Maman et Moi, and Nathalie of The Parisienne
The theme of this bash was Sun in the City, to celebrate the arrival of Summer, and promote a few select brands that can help us do just that! And this time Kasia Dietz was attending the soirée too!
Willina then creates a fun « estory » from all of our tweets and instagrams, which we get to browse through the next day. Impressive to say the least given the sheer amount of social media posts we all published. Enjoy it here.
Greeted with fun colored flower necklaces, we mingled until we were divided into groups, and went from one brand presentation back to the refreshment bar, then off to another brand presentation; all which were set up in lovely little scenes around the fabulous venue which double during the day as an art workshop.
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Springtime in Paris
I literally wrote « Sprintemps » in the title before correcting it to « Springtime ». I think my franglais has gotten a little out of hand. But that isn’t the subject of this post. Or is it….
If you listen closely in the beginning of Springtime in Paris, you can almost hear a collective sigh.. Aaaaaaaaahhhh! The light comes back and we all feel a release of pressure as we emerge from under the gray skies.
I wanted to illustrate Paris this Spring; not that it needs doing… for Pete’s sake, every blogger and their brother is posting pretty blossoming photos of Paris these days. But really, it cannot be helped when you live here. This isn’t to say that living in Paris is all cherry blossoms and pink sunsets…far from it. Paris also includes in the package : tired legs, aching feet, angry fellow metro passengers, (enjoy this funny parody about an « incident » on the metro), pushy people on buses, pushy people everywhere, umbrella wars when in rains, unreliable transportation, interminable lines at any public service office, insurmountable amounts of paperwork in order to get anything done… oh people, I could go on for at least 100 more of these… but that’s not the purpose of this blog post. Or is it…. Read more →
Paris Love Locks : Photo Essay
The Paris love-locks… I know, I know. We have all discussed, photographed and blogged the death out of these little objects… They have a turbulent existence it would seem… All these declarations of passion, desire and commitment have become cumbersome to the city of Paris, but no one wants to discard them.
In a recent article in the Marianne magazine (a leftist French publication) there was an article about these locks and the weight they pull (and place) in the very heart of the city of lights, the city of love.
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… Read more →
In Love With An Iron Lady
I have been in Paris for over 11 years now. Wow. It seems so long to me.
And no matter how many times I go to see the Eiffel Tower, I always always take a picture of her. She is beautiful. Weather it is against a grey cloud-cast sky, or dazzling beneath a vibrant evening blue hue, she is the star of this city, and everyone who comes her heads to her feet to pay hommage in the best way we modern humans know how : by taking her picture.
One day in February, as I was treating myself to a stroll around her gardens, I though how interesting it was to see the intense concentration on people’s faces as they captured her image. They were trance-like almost. Read more →
Paris Street Style #PFW #AW2014 Issey Miyake
… I skipped over to the Tuileries fashion week tent on my lunch the other day to snap some street style shots outside of the Issey Miyake show. There was a slew of photographers and bloggers all waiting for the fashion people to pour out of the venue so they could snap quick pics to toss up on the web.
Like so many have started saying, fashion week now happens just as much OUTSIDE of the shows as it does inside. Read more →
Why Visit Paris this March
Post by Jenny Bailey
Jenny Bailey
Avenue Carnot – Étoile via flickr by Dimitry B
Despite the recent rainy weather, the occasional blossom and warmer temperatures are all tell-tale signs that (dare we say it?) spring is in the air!
Whether you’re craving some fresh air or you’d rather stay indoors, here’s our round up of some of the fabulous stuff going on in the capital this month. Read more →
Some Things Never Change : 19th Century Parisian Activities
Expo : Les Parisiens de Daumier.
Until March 4th… HURRY!
3€ Entry.
Galerie du Crédit Municipal de Paris
55, rue des Francs-Bourgeois – 75004 Paris.
Mon-Fri 9am-5pm – Closed Sundays
I first heard about this expo via the blog Paris, Maman et Moi. Being a 19th century French literature fan (I have the entire collection of Balzac – and FYI, some editions of Balzac’s works were illustrated by Daumier) I knew this was right up my alley. So instead of waiting in line for the Brassaï expo (just like in Sheily’s post linked above), I headed over to see these wonderful drawings of what Parisian life was like in the 1800′s.
You could say that Daumier, who’s work is the entirety of the exposition, was what we would consider a lifestyle/humorist blogger today. Each drawing (there were dozens and dozens of them) mocked, exaggerated or poked fun at a certain « type » of Parisian, in different situations of social life back 150-200 years ago. Read more →
Pretty Paris Pictures : Night Lights
I have been braving the cold and dreary weather lately, with my camera in tow, trying to capture some of those beautiful moments that flicker across my life in this amazing city… And if course I do all that so I can share it with you! Sometimes I end up walking waaaay farther than I originally intend to, all for the sake of getting more great shots. Some of my night shots come out rather yellowish, I wonder if it’s the lights here, or is it my camera? I don’t do any image altering or filtering on my pictures that I post here. I would, if I had the time, but I am just to busy to bother. So I end up taking quite a handful of clichés for each frame, in order to get the perfect picture that won’t need modifications.
