Je t'aime, Paris: Relaxing at the Sacré-Coeur

Last summer, we went to Paris and visited some places that I had fallen in love with as a young boy. Now, I fell in love again with analogue photography on the stairs of the Sacré-Coeur!

My first visit to Paris was when I was fourteen years old, and back then, I went there with my parents and my brother. During that trip, I snapped quite a lot of photos with my Kodak Pocket B-1 camera with 110 format film cassettes. And last summer, when I travelled to Paris with my wife and daughters, we brought a cheap plastic 35 mm camera with an expired roll of Kodacolor Gold. Just before, I had found back my old camera bag with my old cameras and one old roll of film. So I considered our trip to Paris as a good opportunity to check out this old-school photography stuff.

Initially, I had some concerns that the cheap camera did not work properly, as the counter did not move when taking pictures. But it turned out that the camera worked fine, and only the counter did not work anymore. Checking for this resulted in some great light leaks on the old Kodak Gold film.

The quality of my photos from my first visit to Paris in 1984 was pretty varied, from the nice photo of the Sacré-Coeur above to a more clumsy shot of the Notre-Dame. Last summer, the camera was used by all members of the family, which resulted in quite some interesting shots. Only when I received the results and had been looking for a 110-format film for my old Kodak Pocket, I became familiar with Lomography.

Last summer, we climbed the stairs to visit the Sacré-Coeur, while being offered a lot of merchandise like bags and bracelets by illegal street vendors. When the gendarmerie came in sight, they picked up their goods within seconds and disappeared.

At the stairs of the Sacré-Coeur, there were a lot of tourists and local youth hanging around and enjoying the view on Paris and the nice afternoon sun. You could buy a beer for just one euro and have a relaxed time. We enjoyed a stunning free-style performance by former professional football player Iya Traore, and snapped some analogue photos also.

When we got back the photos from that relaxed afternoon at the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, I really liked the unexpected results and I knew for sure: I had not only fallen in love with Paris again, but also with analogue photography!

written by wesco on 2013-07-30 #places #gold #location #eiffel-tower #kodak #paris #france #notre-dame #seine #sacre-coeur #urban-adventures #select-type-of-location #requested-post