Paris, France 9.4.2010
One thing I’ve learned: events are more beautiful when being looked back on than when being experienced. Because after the experience itself, you piece together even the most mundane things, growing continuously into something more wonderful.
Jardin des Tuileries, Paris 9.5.2010
I took this shot around a little bit after noon while we were on our way to Champs-Élysées. It’s amazing how these people manage to linger under the sun during the hottest time of the day, either sitting in benches with their noses stuck on books, or having conversations that would go on for hours, or just wandering around until they uncover something that sparks their interest.
All this, while they let their children free to sail the seas.
Montmartre, Paris 9.4.2010
I love how this one came out. Initially, I intended to take a photo of the window display of this gallery that we passed by. I never expected for us to be incorporated into it though.
That’s Andoy to my left—and yes, I could say that I do miss him!
Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, Paris 9.5.2010
There’s always magic even in the most everyday of things—you just have to look close enough. And among the magical things that day, this was one of them.
La Tour Eiffel, Paris 12.23.2010
This was my favorite memory of us in Paris, and the night before you left. I love you and I miss you, but this was all for the best. See you in a month’s time!
Let our love be the one thing you won’t leave behind. - Mae
La Tour Eiffel viewed from Trocadéro, Paris 12.28.2010
If there’s one place in Europe that has truly captured my spirit, it would be here. The Eiffel Tower can of course be viewed from various places around Paris, but Trocadéro homes its loveliest self. Here, the Eiffel Tower stands at great heights in solitude, as it ignites the sky and all the seemingly small buildings in the horizon with its light. At eleven in the evening, it sets the sky ablaze—for the first ten minutes of every hour—with its twinkling lights that accompany its already amber glow which has been radiating since dusk. And at an hour past midnight, its golden ardor disappears, and for the last time, for ten minutes, its twinkling light illuminates the sky by itself. It then gives way for the stars that it mimics to brighten this beautiful city—this city that I get this immense feeling of attachment from, this city that’s one of the most endearing places in the world that you will ever find yourself in.
And now that it’s once again miles away from me, this photo—that I took during my last night—helps me remember how I felt when I was there—because I never want to forget.
J’ai deux amours, mon pays et Paris - from the song J’ai Deux Amours
La Tour Eiffel, Paris 9.4.2010
When you consider the thought that it might not last forever as you’ve always dreamed it would, when you accept that it can always go the other way, when you recognize that it’s ephemeral, everything takes on a heightened meaning, piecing together something more beautiful than what you already have at the moment.
Never forget the reality of that course. Most times, it’s what makes you want to love even more.
Paris, France 9.4.2010
There must have been a time in our lives when we thought of things like all of our stuffed animals would go to heaven, or that when we grow up we’re going to fly to beside the stars, or that every day of your life would be something like this. It need not be when we were children—although it may have been. It’s just that sometimes, this experience occurs in people later on.
You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Jardins de Versailles, Paris 11.5.2010
Paris, France 10.8.2010
It was me, Andoy and Larz who went up on the roof that night. We had to climb a shaky ladder to get to the small, square hole—roughly around 24 inches per side—punctured through the ceiling.
We stayed up there despite the cold and the wind. There was a warmth of a different kind, so inviting that you cannot find the strength to dispense it. From up there, you could feel an intimate nearness to the other rooftops and also the chimneys that, just like you, have come to the light from below. We didn’t really bring much up there, only ourselves, two cameras, and a bottle of wine to share. It was nearing 1am, and the lights that once shone brightly earlier that evening, have already died down with a sincere humility. And in a few minutes, the Eiffel Tower will follow this surrender.
And once there, for a moment, you find yourself not wanting to return from where you came from.
As means to reconcile
Watercolour and pencil on paper + photo of La Seine from 12.22.2010 + photoshop
2.28.2011
And even so, still with a clean pair of eyes
Musée du Louvre, Paris 12.22.2010
Jardin des Tuileries, Paris 9.5.2010
