When travelling in Paris you have to shoot at least one (preferably two) sunrise sessions. It is the law. Well it isn’t, but in my personal law book, this is kind of true. So one early Paris morning I ventured south of Seine through a deserted Paris to the neighbourhood Petit-Montrouge to hang with Chanel & Médérich in their new five floor walkup apartment. While the nearby market were slowly starting to set up their businesses, we hung out on their insane balcony overlooking french rooftops and the sunrise in the distance while sipping on coffee (if I remember correctly it might have been their third cup. I could be wrong, it was early and my memory hadn’t switched on yet). Afterwards we just strolled around their neighbourhood, found amazing facades and watched the city, very slowly, waking up.

It was so much fun this morning!! Can’t stop talking about it 🙂. The photos are magical! Thank you so much for capturing moments we can’t see.

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Our first photo session together couldn’t have felt more fun or natural. Médé carries himself quite seriously but is truly a goofball who constantly makes me laugh. The photos were able to show us how we love each other from an outside perspective and it ultimately brought us closer together, if that’s even possible!

– Chanel

When I headed home from that session, back on the bus and travelling the same scenic route north through Paris just this time with many more people out and about, I kinda felt like I had unlocked another level of travelling. Not just getting to shoot this swell amazing couple and hang out with them, but to experiences cities at dawn. When the city hasn’t woken up and few people are out.

Whenever I’m travelling I don’t care much about the tourist attractions. I don’t care to see the monuments that other people see, I’d rather walk the streets, find odd alleyways and strange bars, encounter the beautiful in the everyday, the mundane, the things you can see all around. And when I booked in this session with Chanel & Médérich they asked quietly if I had thought about shooting in front of the Eiffel Tower, or Notre Dame, at which point I said a blank no (to their relief!). Because for me the pulse of Paris, nor any city, will never be the tourist destinations, but the residential areas, the fave little bars, or the sleepy markets.

But, on that bus ride through Paris, before dawn when everything was still dusky, the bus took us over the Seine, past Notre Dame. And in it’s glory all by itself, all alone with no tourists to be seen, it truly was amazing. So from now on, whenever I travel, I’ll see the sights at sunrise from a bus. Done and done!