HEY PEOPLE I HAVE WIFI AGAIN!
So last night, the WiFi cut out at our Paris apartment, so we decided to leave the country in the morning out of anger (actually, no. We were planning to leave anyway. Paris was wonderful.)
This is the post I would have put up yesterday if I could have. Sorry it's a day late.
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Yesterday, we did the true tourist-y stuff. 'Twas quite a challenge to avoid all the cliché shots.....
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1250
And by all the tourist-y things, of course I mean visiting this place:
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/2000
Yeah, we had to. As we were walking from the Metro station to the tower, we passed a ton of stands on the sidewalk selling posters of old pictures. Almost all of them were black and white with bright red umbrellas or little spots of color like that. Though I didn't do the partial color, I tried to replicate that style.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/13, 1/320
Our goal was to go to the second floor of the tower because we had heard the top floor was too high up to see anything but little specks of people, cars, and buildings
The view was amazing.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/7.1, 1/500
I got about ten shots of the landscape. Here's one closer.
~STORY TIME~
This story continues until the dividing line, the pictures are just there to break up the text wall.
While we were eating our lunch over Paris, we overheard an interesting story from a tour walking past. Apparently, the Eiffel Tower was only supposed to be up for twenty years. After that, it was due to be demolished. However, Gustav Eiffel was extremely clever with his terms for the tower:
1: The tower would stay up for twenty years
2: He would get a portion of all of the ticket sales
3: He would get to live in an apartment at the top
2: He would get a portion of all of the ticket sales
3: He would get to live in an apartment at the top
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/7.1, 1/500
Here are all ten-ish shots combined. This is just part of the view. We could see almost all of Paris, though Paris also extended to the horizon in all directions.
A few things worked in his favor: Firstly, the ticket sales paid back the construction costs after two months, so M. Eiffel was just raking in money for the next nineteen years and ten months.
ISO 100, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/250
Tilt-shifts were fun from the top.
Secondly, though he didn't actually live there and only used it for entertaining guests, Eiffel legally lived at his penthouse at the top and, more importantly, he received mail there. This meant that, in the eyes of the French law, it was an actual place of residence and not just an attraction.
ISO 100, 210 mm, f/5.6, 1/160
Really fun.
These conditions meant that, because the tower was considered his home, the French government couldn't just kick him out. If they wanted him gone, they would need to buy the property from him…..the property which was had made millions for him. It simply cost too much for them to take it from him. Well done, monsieur Eiffel.
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After we came back down to the ground, we walked down to the Seine, where we waited for a boat bus (called a "batobus"—a combination of autobus, the term for a bus and bateau, the term for boat) to arrive.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000
Credit to my father for taking this picture, though I did the editing.
As the boat was departing, I got some really good shots of the Tower. I was wishing I had a wide-angle lens, but I got some good shots from a distance.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/4, 1/1250
We went to Notre Dame de Paris next, but the line was insane. It stretched out the front doors and across the entire plaza leading to it….about two blocks.
So here's a shot I got of the outside instead.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/4.5, 1/1600
So that's the end to our tourism in Paris. After we got back to our apartment, we walked down to the bistro on the corner and had fantastic baguette before the meal and a really good meal. For dessert, I couldn't resist the last chance to have an authentic crème brûlée.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/20
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/5, 1/125
Mom liked this chandelier because it reminded her of everything she used to do with stained glass.
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And with that, this is the end of my pictures from France. Today was another travel day and the pictures will be posted separately.
That's all for today,
Alec
Alec