VACANCES EN FRANCE: PARTIE SIXTEEN/ HOLIDAYS IN FRANCE: PART SIXTEEN

After the enthusiasm I felt documenting the streets of Paris, and its people, I wanted to continue this in Korea. However, during the one day we had in Soul I could not continue the energy I had felt in Paris. I am not sure if it was the limited time we had in Soul or because it was the end of our journey. But the flavour of Korea remained elusive to my lens. But here is a small sample of my images of the people of Soul.

I felt sadness during our day in Korea, much like I do in writing this, knowing this is my last post on our holiday in France and Korea. Reliving our journey with these posts each week has been an amazing way to re-experience it. Now I am sad to say goodbye once again. Au revoir France, I hope to see you again,

VACANCES EN FRANCE PARTIE: LES QUINZE/ HOLIDAYS IN FRANCE: PART FIFTEEN

I immersed myself in the streets of Paris. I wanted to drink in my surroundings, I knew our journey was nearing the end. and I wanted to capture the vibrancy of the streets and taste the quiet moments of movement around me.

Since Paris is widely accepted as the birthplace of street photography, I knew I had to end our holiday attempting to show a vision of a situation and place; a place that was going to forever capture my heart. Paris is such a cosmopolitan city and it has helped to define street photography as a genre, and the photography has helped to form the city as people know it.

I had captured the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre and now I wanted to show its true spirit, the people of Paris. This collection of images is from the last two days in Paris.

I normally do not use vertical images to keep a continuity to the images here, but so many of my street style images of people are vertical, so I broke my own rule for this post.

VACANCES EN FRANCE: PARTIE QUATORZE/ HOLIDAYS IN FRANCE: PART FOURTEEN

One Hotel Room at a Time.

Tiredness. Oh the horrible weariness that comes with being awake for over 30 hours. After leaving Paris, and getting on the plane to Korea, I had only managed a couple of very small cat-naps on the 11 and half hour flight. Jarvis would only sleep with me sitting upright in this really odd position. So after we landed at Incheon International Airport all I could think of was a shower and to lay down on a comfy bed.

I was so glad we opted to pay for a stay over, instead of having a 12 hour delay at the airport before flying home. This way, with our night at the Hyatt Regency we would have 36 hours in Korea. Enough to sleep, eat, and relax, before the last leg of our journey.

As much as the king sized bed was divine, I forced us to get up and go downstairs to have dinner. I am glad we did, but Justin and I must have looked like a couple fighting. Not sure if we even spoke two words during dinner. We were that couple that just sit there opposite each other at a restaurant not talking, just zoning out, we were just so very tired.

After breakfast in the morning, it was if we were two new people; full of smiles and energy. So we opted not to waste our day lounging around the hotel, but to go into in Soul. So bused it to the airport and then got the hour long bus from the airport into Soul. 

Ok, who were we kidding? We were still tired; all three of us fell asleep on the bus. But I have been told it is not a very exciting bus ride.

We got off near Deoksugung Palace, which is located in the center of Soul on a busy intersection. It is a walled compound that was inhabited by various Korean royalties until the colonial period around the turn of the 20th century. The buildings are of varying construction, including some built in Western style. It was such a peaceful contrast to the outside city.

We wandered around for an hour or so then came outside to watch the changing of the guards.

After a quick pit stop for food, we had about half an hour to just walk around, and try to soak up as much of the city as possible.

How cute? The restaurant was named Daddy and Me, and just screamed photo time at me.

 All too soon our holiday was over, and time to get our final flight home to Brisbane. The nine hour flight went quickly. We blinked, and the month in France had passed and we were home.

VACANCES EN FRANCE: PARTIE B TREIZE/ HOLIDAYS IN FRANCE: PART THIRTEEN B

One Hotel Room at a Time. 

I woke on our last day in Paris, feeling sad and nostalgic. I was not ready to go home. France had worked its magic on all of us, and I wanted to stay. It seemed only fitting that after our trip to the Eiffel Tower, the previous night, that we should start our final day with a visit to the Pont des Arts, or Passerelle des Arts. It  is a pedestrian bridge in Paris which crosses the Seine River. We walked there with our lock in hand, to place it among the ever growing collection of love locks.

The love padlocks have been a phenomenon in cities as varied as Belgium to Japan. For those of you who haven’t heard of them, here's the story. A couple writes their names on a padlock and locks it onto one of the bridges. They then throw the key into the Seine River as a symbol of their undying love. Well, our padlock did not have a key it was a combination lock, and instead of our names, we opted to write “JJJ”, for the eternal love of our family.

The river was so beautiful at that time of the morning, and we finally thought to get a group shot together, yes Justin has his eyes closed, unfortunately the random guy we asked only took one photo.

We ended up spending the rest of the day wandering around Paris, just taking photos, eating and trying to absorb everything we could. 

All too soon, it was time to get a taxi to airport and head to Korea. Yes I am looking sad and wistful. But can you blame me?

VACANCES EN FRANCE: PARTIE A TREIZE/ HOLIDAYS IN FRANCE: PART THIRTEEN A

One Hotel Room at a Time. 

After leaving Chateau de Brou, and arriving Paris, a strange energy over came me. For a lot of the trip, I was a little lax in taking photos. But after arriving in back in Paris, it was as if I wanted to consume the entire city, with my camera and my tummy. I could not get enough. Paris on the way in was like a tired old lady. Paris on our way out, it was if the old lady got out of her dressing grown, and dressed up in all of her finery for us to see.

Paris this time showed me why people fall in love with her. Our hotel, Hotel de Seine, was located in the historic 6th district in central Paris, near Boulevard Saint Germain. An amazing location, with a crepe place every couple of meters, and walking distance to everything we wanted.

Selfie in the elevator mirror 

Wasn't our hotel a classy old girl?

We spent the morning exploring the streets around our hotel, and the afternoon at the park. It seems to be a very 'French thing" to go to the park with your children on a Sunday, as the park was crowed with families. Oh and we fitted in lots of food stops.

We had saved the Eiffel Tower for our last night in France, and I am so glad we did, it was such a gorgeous night. Jarvis fell asleep soon after the Tower visit, which gave Justin and I a chance to have a romantic (read uninterrupted) meal and view of the Eiffel tower.

Near the Eiffel tower was the “Buddy Bears”, one bear for each country. Here is Australia’s. The unique United Buddy Bears project features 140 bear sculptures representing as many countries recognised by the United Nations. Standing together hand in hand, the 2m tall bears promote tolerance and living together in peace. 

So, yes that is a lot of photos of the Eiffel Tower, but I fell in love with it all over again

( I am going to break Paris into three parts because I did go crazy with the camera)