Paris: One week, one camera, one lens, and whole lot of film 

This was not a business trip, but a chance to go back to visit Paris after a more-than three-year absence.  It was timed to coincide with Lyne’s birthday, and we expected light crowds given the time of year (end of February). Little did we know before landing that our visit would coincide with Spring Break / Reading Week / Study Week for a number of European educational institutions, so the streets, museums and bistros were much more crowded than we had anticipated.

 

The good news? The weather was unseasonably warm.  We left a relatively mild but snow-filled Québec winter behind to bask in daytime highs in the mid-teens (°C). And I do mean bask: we had to dig out sunglasses most days.

 

On previous visits, we have stayed in hotels and apartments on both sides of the river.  Our most recent (pre-pandemic) visit we had been in an apartment in the rive droite Marais district, but that apartment was no longer on offer. For this trip, we found a studio closer to the Seine, between Les Halles and the Centre Pompidou.  This neighbourhood was a revelation: many streets being pedestrian only, and lanes filled with shops, bistros (most spelled with an extra “t”, as in "bistrot"), and huge variety of restaurants.

 

This great location meant that we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to visit for the entire week: no Métro, taxi, or Uber.  The only motorized transit during the entire week was the Batobus Paris, a great boat service running on the Seine, doing a loop on the river and making nine stops along the way between the Tour Eiffel in the east and the Jardin des Plantes (Botanical Gardens) in the west, just opposite of the beginning of the Canal Saint-Martin.

Having had some challenges with getting film through airport security in the past, I brought a minimum amount of film with me, with a plan to buy more locally.  As it turned out, there was a very well stocked store just 5 minutes from the apartment, the Kodak Express Châtelet - Nation Photo. There I was able to stock-up for our time in Paris, and also buy some additional hard-to-find film for future shooting:

While I limited myself to just two cameras with fixed lenses on the last non-work trip during Thanksgiving in Hillsdale NY, much like recent work trips to Washington and San Diego, for this trip, I stuck to a single camera and a single lens, but this time, instead of the Nikon F4, I packed the Hasselblad, the camera I gushed about in the first post on this blog, the 500 C/M paired with the legendary Carl Zeiss Planar 1:2.8 80mm lens. 

This was my first chance to really put the Hasselblad through its paces and shoot multiple rolls of film in different conditions. The verdict? This camera absolutely deserves its stellar reputation, and more! It’s truly a joy to use: much lighter and less cumbersome than the Mamiya RB67, easy to load (I had two film backs), a snap to focus with its bright waist-level viewfinder, the sound the shutter makes is unmistakable and very satisfying, and the images it produces are amazingly clear and detailed. Plus, it just looks...cool. Shooting with this rig inevitably leads to conversations with strangers with even just a passing interest in photography, who have a question or comment about the Hassleblad.

 

Yes, I shot a lot of film that week:

All of the film was developed and scanned by the fine folks at Canadian Film Lab.

On to some of the images I captured, beginning with those on my new favorite film, CineStill BwXX shot at 250 ISO.  As I noted in a previous post, I’ll put together a post about new and interesting films available today, and this will certainly feature among them. This is a film stock developed for motion picture, and according to the CineStill website:

“Some of the iconic movies filmed on the classic Eastman Double-X film stock 5222 / 7222 include: The Lighthouse (2019), Raging Bull (1980), Schindler's List (1993), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Malcolm & Marie (2021), Memento (2000), Kafka (1991), Casino Royale (2006), I'm Not There (2007), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Manhattan (1979), Cinderella Man (2005), Aferim! (2015), Frantz (2016), American Horror Story (2011-2017) and many many more.”

Hasselblad 500 C/M

Carl Zeiss Planar 1:2.8 80mm

CineStill BwXX 250 ISO

Bourse de Commerce, Les Halles, Paris:

Le Louvre, from the north-east corner:

A bateau-mouche on the Seine:

Outside the Musée d'Orsay, trying to capture a streetlamp's reflection in a puddle, after the only rain that fell the entire week:

...and you saw this photo at the top of this post, "Love Each Other" says the Scrabble tiles someone stuck to the wall near the Seine, with Tour Eiffel in the background...showing off the great Bokeh of this lens:

Statue of General de Gaulle, marking the liberation of Paris:

This next set of photos were shot on Ilford Ortho Plus 80 ISO, a film I had loaded into a Christmas-present film back in December but had not had a chance to use until now. 

Hasselblad 500 C/M

Carl Zeiss Planar 1:2.8 80mm

Ilford Ortho Plus 80 ISO

The Seine has merchants on both banks of the river, the Bouquinistes, or booksellers:

My first visit to Paris coincided with the beginning of the craze of people putting padlocks, with initials of lovers, on the Pont des Arts, and throwing the key to the lock into the Seine as a sign of their unbreakable love.  However, after 45 tons (!) of locks were attached to bridge and it became structurally unsafe, the locks were removed, and plexiglass replaced the railings and fencing, so that locks can no longer be attached to the bridge.  What has sprung up however, is that locks are now attached all around Paris, on railings and fences near every tourist attraction:

I shot one roll of Ilford FP4 Plus, 125 ISO. 

Hasselblad 500 C/M

Carl Zeiss Planar 1:2.8 80mm

Ilford FP4 Plus 125 ISO

Here is the view of the Arc de Triomphe, as close as we could get, given the crowds in the city that week. The underground access tunnel was jam-packed, and as you can see from the top of the image, there was a full house atop the Arc, folks taking advantage of the view:

L'Hôtel de Ville de Paris, city hall, getting ready to welcome the Olympics:

Musée de Cluny, history of the middle ages:

I shot a number of rolls of Ilford HP5 Plus 400 ISO, a film that I have used extensively also in 35mm format.  

Hasselblad 500 C/M

Carl Zeiss Planar 1:2.8 80mm

Ilford HP5 Plus 400 ISO

Here is our first view of the Louvre on the day we arrived, coming to the museum from the west:

Statuary in the Jardin des Tuileries:

When not visiting museums, we were visiting churches:

Paris is a very cycle-friendly city:

The Centre Pompidou:

...and more statues:

The streets and laneways were busy at all hours in Les Halles:

I spotted this very friendly guy, happy to show off his immaculate Citroën 2 CV (deux chevaux), he thought the Hasselblad was cool, I felt the same about his wheels:

Léon Gambetta's heart? its at the Panthéon:

No visit to Paris would be complete without a visit to venerable bookstore, Shakespeare and Company:

...provided there is not a line-up to get into the store...we had to give it a pass this visit, but we did take a break in the coffee shop:

...I guess instead of visiting the bookstore, I can listen to the podcast?

The clock at the Musée d'Orsay, a museum with a spectacular collection of Impressionist works:

Hasselblad 500 C/M

Carl Zeiss Planar 1:2.8 80mm

Kodak Professional Portra 400 ISO

I did shoot a little in colour, Kodak Portra 400, here is a different perspective of the Eiffel Tower, from the Batobus on the Seine, just coming from under the Pont d'Ilena:

A view of the rebuilding of Notre Dame, as seen from the river:

Le Jardin de Luxembourg on a very sunny day:

Le Panthéon:

The central hall of the Musée d'Orsay:

Heading towards Place des Vosges:

...where they seem to be concerned about rats:

While the weather was fantastic, I suspect we may stay away from Paris in the future in February, given the crowds.  We previously visited in the fall, and may go back to that in future.

Stay tuned: a post with Egypt and Mount Sinai photographs is on the horizon, from a November 2022 trip...

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