The Place des Vosges must be one of the most beautiful corners of this beautiful city. Like the Place Dauphine it owes its existence to the city planning ambitions of Henri IV. It was laid out as an elegant residential square where the upper echelons of Parisian society could live and socialise. Much has changed since then, not least due to the Revolution, but it remains as elegant as ever.
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When out with my camera I often ‘shop’ for windows, seeking out ones that might make interesting images. Whether peering through them, looking for reflections or simply enjoying the geometry of their frames, windows make great subjects for photography.
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When you first arrive in a new city, you can’t wait to get out and explore. There are new sights to be seen, new experiences to be had. But if it’s somewhere you’ve visited many times before there isn’t that urgency. New sights can wait for tomorrow. Today, on arrival, your desire is rather to reconnect, to regain that sense of feeling at home. And for me, in Paris, that means a walk by the Seine.
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Of course if you want to see Paris from a high viewpoint you can do as many tourists do and go up the Eiffel Tower. Or you can stand on the steps in front of the Sacré Coeur on the hill of Montmartre. And once those obvious tourist boxes are ticked, there are still plenty of other options.
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Henri IV was a much-loved king of France, reigning from 1589 to 1610, when he was assassinated. Baptised a Catholic but raised a Protestant by his mother, he tried to balance the interests of both. Four years after his death a statue of him was placed on the Île de la Cité where it is crossed by the Pont Neuf, facing the Place Dauphine.
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I never tire of wandering the streets of Paris; there is always so much to see and to photograph. From elegant buildings to quirky details and of course plenty of street art.
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Paris, like most cities, is full of colour. Street art, flower markets, shop windows, mellow old stone, green (or autumnal) trees … I could go on. But it is also full of striking details that translate well to monochrome images.
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Jean Cocteau said that, 'In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator'. I disagree. For me, there are few more pleasurable ways to pass the time in Paris than sitting on the terrace of a pavement café watching the world pass by.
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The Marais is one of the loveliest and most fashionable districts of Paris. The name means ‘marshland’ because the original village here was built on a marsh, but there are no signs of that these days! Instead there are elegant buildings, pretty squares and of course the Parisian staples of great little cafés.
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It’s hard to ignore the Tour Montparnasse. This 210 metre high skyscraper dominates the skyline on the southern fringes of central Paris. Its monolithic appearance has often been criticised as incongruous or inappropriate for this proudly elegant city.
