paris naturals

What photographer hasn’t dreamt of shooting in Paris? The architecture, the shopping, pastries and more! We wanted to experience it all. Unfortunately our French skills were pretty much non-existent so we were a little worried about the language barrier for us there. We arrived at our AirBnB location and were excited about the view.  The architecture was pretty much amazing at every corner in Paris.  This particular location was super tiny and gave us a sneak peek into “tiny house” living, lol! It was at this point that we started to realize how much larger things are in the US and how we had been living without the big screen tv, the extra square footage, and all of the extra STUFF for months and somehow managed to survive without a problem.  We started to re-evaluate what we really need back home and how we have to make some changes into a more simplified lifestyle when we return.

 

Anyway, to our surprise, the host had left us with a few French snacks and goodies for our visit.  One thing that made us laugh was the pink toilet paper in the restroom.  I hadn’t seen colored toilet paper since I was a little girl, so it was funny to see people still using this in Paris.  I thought that this stuff was discontinued everywhere but apparently only in the US.  

We decided to take a late night run to the grocery store a few blocks away to experience grocery shopping in Paris.  Remember I said everything was smaller? Peep the size of the shopping cart below.  Yup, that’s the size of the shopping cart.  Also, there were no large bottles of anything like we have in the US – the Tropicana OJ was the largest size available.  Again, at this point we’re starting to re-evaluate our lives and way of living, lol! One thing we didn’t realize during our grocery shopping excursion was that there were no bags – we were supposed to bring our own recyclable bag with us so we had to carry our groceries out by hand.  Whoops!

One of our favorite parts about Paris were the small bakeries everywhere!  The desserts were everything you would imagine from a Parisian bakery.  So many unique things to try.

The next day we ventured out to do a little sight seeing and knew we had to see the Eiffel tower just to knock it off the to do list.  It was pretty much what we expected but we got a kick out of all of the vendors selling the exact.same.souvenirs  at every corner.  Reg made a joke that someone could come in and demolish the competition by simply offering some different products, lol! 

We then took a visit over to the Louvre and fell in love.  The architecture was everything we envisioned for our shoot.  We knew that this would become our shoot location.

Our first shoot was with two gorgeous models for one of our favorite designers Alexandria Olivia. For this shoot, we decided to venture around our neighborhood to capture a little bit of everyday life in Paris (with a high fashion twist of course). Even though there was a bit of a language barrier the girls did an amazing job and we were off to our second shoot in Paris.

We decided to do hair and makeup at a hotel near the Louvre to make things easier.  To our surprise, when we walked in the hotel room everything was PINK.  When I say everything, I mean everything.. the chairs, curtains, bed, walls, toilet, sink, tub.. everything!  After Reg’s initial shock and heart attack we got kinda used to the place.  I guess Paris really is the city of love, lol!

Before our shoot we had a quick meal with a few of the models and our hairstylist, Sephora. It was a nice way to break the ice before our shoot.

For this shoot we relied heavily on help from our hairstylist and the parents to help translate our directions – along with a little demonstration. 🙂

One thing that’s universal for sure – the innocence of kids.  Love that they are always able to make new friends in just a matter of minutes.  We had a blast with these girls!  

 Big thanks to everyone who helped us out on this shoot.  We can’t wait to visit again so that we can catch up with our new friends. 🙂  

Oh and when we thought we were all done, one of the moms came back with a few gifts from Paris. I don’t know why people are so kind to us but we are SO thankful to the kindness shown to us during our visit.

Finally, here are some of the gorgeous images captured in Paris.

Clothing: Next Direct
Hair: Sephora Joannes

Clothing:  Alexandria Olivia