Blog – Travel to Paris, France

Despite being a 60 year-old lens, it still out performs many many modern optics. Leica yay! But what a sight!

Living in London means that I have the luxury to travel to Europe at a very reasonable cost, only if time allows. France is a place that I always love, the culture, the people and the food. Yes, I love French cuisine. I guess if I speak fluent French then I may just move to that city for a few years and experience the buzz and love of this magical place. Like London, this city is full of history and lovely architecture.

Avenue des Champs Elysées, with traffic (and a common sight just like any other popular places on earth.

This wasn’t my first time to Paris but this trip was the ONLY trip that I had the opportunity to take some proper photos of Paris. I must confess that I didn’t think I stayed long enough to see this fantastic place but I really got the taste of what it could be in terms of photography. Paris has so much going and a great place to practice street photography. Henri already showed us pictures from the past. In fact, modern Paris is quite different to what Henri used to see but the good part is that Paris still has lots of historic elements that remain ever so refreshing to see. A word of advice though, it will be more beneficial to learn a few words in French and it will go a long way. (I am learning now indeed)

A classic shot, Henri-style 😀

During our few days there, we literally ‘walked’ around Paris. We set off from St. Pancras in London and took the Eurostar high speed rail to Paris’s Gard du Nord. Because it was my birthday present to my wife so I decided to travel light and wanted to enjoy this romantic place with her, I took only my film Leica M6 with a 50mm and 90mm prime and my 5D and the 16-35mm 2.8L, oh yes, and the Gorilla pods instead of my usual tripods. Everything fits in my Kata Bumble Bee 222UL with lots of spare room for our essentials too. Since our China travel, I’d been using my lovely Garmin 62s GPS for tracking our daily routes so we would never get lost. I could also use the logged path to geotag all my digital photos too when I got home.

We’d booked our hotel very close to Gard du Nord and that’s pretty central to everything else. Travellig around Paris was pretty easy if you are used to any kind of train or underground system. All the lines were colour-coded just like our London Underground and Hong Kong’s MTR system. As with London, Paris’ system is fairly old but everything was very well labelled and easy to use, even with a family. Getting some travel vouchers was also well worth it because buying tickets individually would cost more and these little ticket vouchers saved time from getting them from the machines during peak hours.

The facet of Notre Dame was simply a master piece of art.

So we visited almost all the famous landmarks like the Arc de Triomphe, , Cathédrale de Notre Dame, Tour Eiffel, Avenue des Champs Elysées, Basilique du Sacré Coeur, Montmartre, The Louvre and we also took the train to Chateau de Versailles. One of my favourite places was the Paris Flea Market. However, the market itself has become a tourist point and the prices were inflated. However, if you do speak French and you could get the ‘local’ price by using a bit of your charm and language skill.

Another one from the distant.

And make sure you visit the famous Galleries Lafayette on the Boulevard Haussmann for some very nice classic French interior designs or perhaps some shopping.

This is a shot that you will see all over the internet!

It’d been a while since I last took a film camera on holiday so it was actually very refreshing to ‘not’ to see the images I captured on the day. I took a mixed bag of colour and black and white rolls and hoping to capture Paris to match my vision. Black and white was definitely my choice to photograph Paris and my favourite for this trip was the cheap and cheerful Agfa APX 100. Coupled with the lovely vintage Leitz Summicron 5cm, which produced one of the best vintage rendering I’d ever seen, really captured the lovely scene of Paris.

The Lourve at night.

I am fortunate to be living in London and Paris is just a few hours train journey so I could simply go there for a few days whenever I want. One thing I forgot to mention, French cuisine and patisserie, just like heaven!

I always love painting and man this one is just….

Gallery

Before I stop writing, I will leave you with this gallery highlighting some general snaps from my wife and a few more photos from me. Enjoy!

Off we went!

Little travel ticket vouchers.

Avenue des Champs Elysées, with traffic (and a common sight just like any other popular places on earth.

The facet of Notre Dame was simply a master piece of art.

Squeezing through that tiny space. I am definitely not getting slimmer.

Use of my classic 5cm Summicron was such a joy when creating images like this.

Despite being a 60 year-old lens, it still out performs many many modern optics. Leica yay! But what a sight!

My wife was enjoying the view too!

Paris is a very ‘developed’ city and just how dense it is!

On top of Tour Eiffel.

A classic shot, Henri-style 😀

A digital from my 5D of the famous tower!

Another one from the distant.

After an hour train journey, we arrived at Chateau de Versailles.

Every Paris visitor should take this short trip to see this palace.

Ceiling painting (© Blue Print Photography / Jimmy Cheng)

The size, the elegance, the decorations…

My favourite place – Flea Market

There were so much to see, so little time.

There are many parts of markets in the area and each sells different things.

A self portrait?

It’s best to go there early to avoid over crowding.

I noticed a lot of little dogs around.

This little fella was watching the shop for its owner.

Black and white.

Some parts of the city was quite quiet.

Basilique du Sacré Coeur, another magnificent structure.

This isn’t a queue of people, just a line of people looking at this…

… this beautiful view of Paris.

Behind Basilique du Sacré Coeur, it’s Montmartre. An area that’s well worth an exploration. It’s a nice place filled with painters and art workers.

This is a common scene and fancy one? It does’t cost too much to have a yourself painted.

Here’s another view of Notre Dame while we walked back to the hotel.

The Lourve was another MUST visit place in Paris.

The scale of this museum is simply stunning.

I want to live in Paris.

I always love painting and man this one is just….

A lone angel in The Lourve.

Many painters will practice from master pieces.

The Lourve at night.

Yah!! I was here!

Gallerie Lafayette is very beautiful indeed.

This is a shot that you will see all over the internet!

Jimmy

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