Your Itinerary 15: Local Expert- Valerie Jardin on Paris, France
Podcast: Download (Duration: 27:33 — 25.2MB)
This week is the first of our new “Local Expert” series. I will have a local expert on the show each week in February to kick off the series, then I am planning to continue the series once each month going forward.
A “Local Expert” is a photographer who knows the details about a place that photographers want to know. You’ll hear travel tips, shooting suggestions and much more. It can be someone who lives in a particular place, or just someone who visits often. If you’d like to come on the show and talk about your favorite place just drop me a line at rob@thisweekinphoto.com or on Twitter @YourItinerary.
I’m pleased to kick off the series with our friend Valerie Jardin on Paris, France. Valerie is originally from Paris and she has led photo workshops there for years. She has some great insight about where to stay, eat and shoot when you visit Paris.
I’ve been to Paris a couple of times and I would have loved to have Valerie’s advice before I planned my previous trips. She shares her local's viewpoint to help you get the quintessential Paris photos AND have the quintessential Parisian experience.
Locations mentioned during the conversation: 5th district – La Sorbonne – Pantheon – Ile Saint Louis – Place des Vosges – Rue des Rosiers – Jardins du Luxembourg – Père Lachaise Cemetery – Tour Montparnasse.
You can find out more about Valerie and see her work at valeriejardinphotography.com.
Be sure to check out her Street Focus podcast right here on the TWiP Network.
Stay tuned to Your Itinerary for more local experts!
I really disagree with the sentiment that Valerie expressed and you seemed to agree with, Rob, that if a person comes up and tries to speak to you in the only language that they know that is somehow rude or justification for being rude. Maybe in France—but that is not some kind of universal truth. You asked how “you” would react. I would react by trying to be as kind and helpful as I could, whether it’s a French tourist in Yosemite trying to speak to me in French (which has happened) or a person trying to speak Spanish to me in Atlanta.
I love Paris. No. I LOVE Paris. However there is a percentage of people who actively go out of their way to be jerks in a way that we have not experienced anywhere else. I will never forget waiting in an RER station for a train to Versailles with my pregnant wife and elderly parents when a Parisian came up to us unsolicited and did everything he could to talk us into getting on a train going in the opposite direction. Sadly, this type of thing has happened more than once. Yet on that same trip, we all went to out to eat at a small crowded restaurant and the waiter, seeing that my wife was pregnant, went around and asked everyone to put out their cigarettes. This is no small thing given the French love for cigarettes. I don’t think any of us will ever forget that extraordinarily kind and thoughtful gesture by not just the waiter but by all the other patrons who put out their cigarettes.