I think the romance of Paris really comes out at night: The warm glow of monuments and street lights, pink skies against the eclectic architecture, the old versus the new. Though I don’t always take great night photos (I’m working on this), we did haul our full-size tripod on this trip and for once actually used it in a few key spots (e.g. sunset at the Eiffel Tower, Louvre pyramid, Arc de Triomphe).
Here are some of my favorite photos of Paris at night:
Rooftops at sunset:
The Eiffel Tower at Dusk. View from the 56th floor observation deck of Montparnasse Tower:
View from the Montparnasse Tower, about 20 minutes later:
The Eiffel Tower from across the River Seine:
The Notre Dame Cathedral from across the River Seine:
Reflections on the River Seine:
The Louvre Pyramid at night:
The Arc de Triomphe with cars zipping by:
Rue d’ Odessa in Montparnasse is known for having dozens of cafes that serve crêpes:
Waiting for a train at one of the street-level Metro platforms:
The bright lights of a Paris Saint-Germain (vs. OGC Nice) soccer game:
Our colorful apartment building in Ménilmontant:
The bright lights and windmill of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret:
The Sacré-Cœur Basilica on top of the Montmartre hill, the highest point in the City of Paris:
The view over Paris from the steps of the Sacré-Cœur:
And last but not least, a cell phone video I shot of the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower. The tower is lit like this for five minutes at the top of the hour every night after sunset.
What do you think: Is there a city more magical than Paris at night?
Gorgeous! My mom will be visiting Paris this year, and I will live vicariously through her trip because I haven’t been to Paris in ages. The twinkling lights remind me of the lights on the Bay Bridge now. Maybe the same artist?
Wonderful! I hope you’ll have her write a guest post and share some of her photos 😉 That’s a great question about the light show–the Eiffel Tower has been lit like this since 2000 so I’m guessing they are not, though I bet the Bay Lights project was inspired by Paris.
Also, in researching your question I noticed an error in my post — the light show lasts 5 minutes not 10 (reduced recently to conserve energy), so thanks for that!
Cassie,
The pictures of the Eiffel Tower are amazing! You do great work, your photographs are just superb. I have a Nikon and now I’m jealous (LOL) because I haven’t been able to take pictures with this brilliance (but then again, I’ve never been to Paris either, LOL). Great post, thanks for providing such great photos!
Thanks, Irving! I’m really trying to improve my night photography so I really appreciate your kind words (especially coming from a fellow Nikon user!) I think the most important thing in night photography is to keep the camera still, so when I don’t have a tripod (I usually carry this cheap, lightweight one: http://amzn.to/1dQX1RP) I try to prop the camera up against a tree, a wall, or a fence to keep it still. A remote shutter release is handy too, though lately I’ve been too lazy to get it out so I just put it on shutter delay (so it doesn’t release until 1 or 2 seconds after you press the button allowing the camera to stop shaking). Blur is the most important thing, almost everything else can be fixed in Lightroom.
Now I just need to learn some of your photo tricks… 🙂
These are all such spectacular shots. Paris by night really is magical – it’s pretty lovely in the day but it just becomes quite ethereal at night. I didn’t know about the Eiffel light show so randomly spotting it when we were at the Arc was a nice surprise at dusk!
Thanks, I really appreciate your kind words! I worried before visiting Paris the first time that it would feel like a Disney set, something fake or stuck in time, but it’s real and just as magical as in the movies 🙂 I’d forgotten about the light show this last trip and so when we spotted it first from the Sacre-Coer I was very excited. It was so pretty!
Great photos. Notre Dame with the sky so ominous is magical.
Thanks, Ross! That one is one of my favorites 🙂
I love these pictures! We are off to Paris in a couple of weeks, but unfortunately I don’t expect we’ll see much at night travelling with a little one! It’s nice to see your pictures though!
True, I bet you’ll have a good view from your room–there aren’t many “bad views” in Paris 🙂 Safe travels, Celine!
Paris is so romantic at night. All of your photos are superb, but the one of Notre Dame Cathedral from across the River Seine is just brilliant.