We were in Paris last week! We spent about ten days there, and enjoyed a lot while we were there. We arrived on the afternoon of the 16th and left on the morning of the 25th. Again, we visited some exhibits of course, and we got the chance to talk to several photographers during our time in Paris. I enjoyed getting to see different people's work, as well as talking to some photographers and getting to know more about them and their work.
We worked on our projects throughout the week. Our Paris project was focused on street photography. I tried a few techniques for this project, and at first, it wasn't going as well as I hoped it would. I was a bit nervous of taking photos of random people or even the possibility of getting yelled at by someone who did not want their photo taken. However, throughout the week, I figured out what worked well for me and became a bit more comfortable taking photos of random people for our project.
Throughout the week, we explored Paris and did some shopping in our free time. I was able to buy a couple cute things from Zara, Longchamp, Bershka, and Pull & Bear, as well as a jacket from a cool vintage thrift store we found. We actually found a few cool thrift stores that had a decent selection including vintage items. We also checked out a few of the designer stores in Paris, which was a fun experience too.
While the hostel did have some basic breakfast and dinner options available, we went out to eat quite a bit. There's definitely a lot of good food to try in Paris, and we couldn't miss out on that. We tried many different things from many different restaurants, and we even went to some restaurants multiple times to try different dishes there. We enjoyed our fair share of desserts as well, including a lot of gelato, macaroons, and tartes. With the weather being on the hotter side several of the days, especially towards the end of our stay in Paris, it was the perfect excuse to keep trying more flavors of gelato. A place called Amorino served their gelato in the shape of a flower and it was very good, which led us to going there a couple times during our stay.
We went to the Eiffel Tower and hung out at the Parc du Champ de Mars several times. The first time we attempted to go see the Eiffel Tower at night, it started raining unexpectedly right before we got there. We ended up going later in the week several times. I was excited to see the Eiffel Tower in person, and going at night to watch the sunset there and later see the lights on the tower twinkle was a great experience.
We even got to meet some nice people there who let us take photos of them. While there one night, we met a group called the Midnight Runners. They were having limbo contests, sack races, playing music, and dancing around. While there was a little bit of a language barrier between us, they were nice and allowed us to take photos of them, some of which I used in my project. Each night we spent at the Eiffel Tower was a little bit different, but each time was great.
Towards the end of our time in Paris, it got very hot. It was around 100 degrees at the end. Our whole group also went on a Seine River cruise one of the last evenings in Paris. It was nice being out on the river after a hot day, while getting to see more of the sites of the city. I enjoyed exploring the city and shooting photos while in Paris. I was glad I was able to see places such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. I was glad I got to see so much of the city, and I would love to go back since there was still so much I would love to do and see there. London is next!
