The Louvre
Once over the bridge we walked to our next destination, which was a large open square with wooden stages being set up in this part of the Louvre. As we went through the archway, the same group of hustlers had moved there too and were hassling people going through towards the Louvre pyramid. To one side of the passage was a street entertainer playing the violin.
We walked around the crowds and the pyramid.
At the right hand side of the square past the pyramid we turned and went through a high vaulted passage. The passage had views into other spaces within the Louvre.
Then we crossed to pass these glass sided buildings and the turned towards Palais Royale.
Palais Royale
Through another passageway and there were the sculptures in the Palais Royale .
Walking to our left we were in a garden with a covered walkway. Walking down the walkway we came to a café and stopped for a drink.
Inside the café, I had a hot mulled wine which was incredibly spicy. The walkway ran alongside the the trees in the garden. These are the gardens behind ‘Emily’ and her friends when they had coffees or lunch in the Palais Royale
I did spend some time back in the archway that we had first entered the square trying to capture silhouettes.
Then it was back to the sculptures to try and find subjects to photograph.
A model shoot was taking place at the side of the square. I took this shot and moved closer for a better look.
The photographer saw me and my camera and asked me not to take pictures. The poor model was absolutely freezing without a coat and I left them alone in peace.
Emily in Paris – the office
Leaving the square we came to the location where Emily ‘worked’ in the Netflix series -‘Emily in Paris.’
Through a Parisian arcade
We were then at an arcade of shops. We all took pictures of the hairdressers working in a salon.
The shops in the arcade were mainly small art galleries until we reached the end and there were two shoe shops selling Laboutins.
These two guys at their shoes off and were probably waiting for their significant others to finish choosing shoes.
Pont Neuf
This is where we split up after a very busy day. I joined the folks walking back to the 5th.
We crossed over the Seine on Pont Neuf stopping to at the Place Dauphin.
Once off Pont Neuf we followed the Quai until Boulevard Saint-Michel.
Boulevard Saint-Michel
Over the road was a flash dance and I missed a great opportunity for pictures. This is one of Cristen’s images from the ‘event’.
My lesson learnt – no matter how foot weary you are, do stop and take pictures. Cristen from the group posted pictures and I could then see what I’ve missed!
The Brassierie les Patios
Dinner was on Rue Soufflot at The Brassierie les Patios. There I met the first truly grumpy waiter this visit to Paris. I was seated next to the door. This should have been OK but the brasserie was running an event in the next door shop. This meant there was a constant stream of servers going backwards and forwards with either food or dirty crockery.
Perhaps I over ordered as I started with melted cheese followed by a slice of steak with chips plus a mandatory beer.
Finally back at the hotel
Back in the hotel, I backed up my images rather than copy to my laptop I transferred all the raw images off the SD card to my portable drive in one go. Big mistake! The transfer took over 30 minutes.
This is the remember that you copy to the laptop first, and then to the portable drive as the USB dock really slowed the transfers down. I took JPG images off the CF Express card to use for the seven images needed for the review the next day. These were then processed using Microsoft Editor.
The rumoured strike in Paris on the Tuesday was confirmed. I explored options for travel on Tuesday including switching to travelling late on Monday evening. But the options were very limited, instead I went to bed ready for the second day of the workshop.
The last day of the workshop was scheduled to start outside the Pantheon.