Most beautiful building facades and photo ops in Paris
 

I'm looking for good looking buildings for photography while just walking around the city, anything special that you guys could recommend?
And any particular view point recommendations would be great as well.
And any buildings that are specially illuminated at night would be great.

I love photographing Paris on our trips. You may get some inspiration from my photos

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gi...57636716043473

I like to visit a different area each trip! Paris is so lovely you will see beautiful things everywhere!

Obviously the Eiffel Tower when lit up at night is irresistible to photographers. I love the Arc de Triomphe when lit, too.

On my last visit to Paris, I visited La Defense for the first time. It's a modern area of town built after World War II and has some interesting buildings, if you get tired of the classic architecture of old Paris. There's also La Grande Arche there, a huge modern arch (and building) that I photographed at night.

jamikins has got it going on with photography (I do not). To me the most beautiful building in Paris is Opera Garnier.

For some reason, I love all the old doors in Paris!

You will not be short on inspiration in Paris!

I can't imagine not finding these things on your own, but jamikins is certainly an inspiration.

>>For some reason, I love all the old doors in Paris!<<

One trip that was almost all I took -- doors and passageways.

ashwib: Paris is a photographer's dream. Hard to take a bad shot really. Great images around every corner.

>>Hard to take a bad shot really<< . . .but really great images depend on your 'eye', jamikins has posted many photo albums - France, Italy, lots of others - and she definitely has an eye for it . . .

Janisj...glad to hear that! Everyone else's pictures of those doors and passageways look better than mine, but I am obsessed with them!

'I can't imagine not finding these things on your own'

This.

Take pictures of whatever excites or inspires you personally when you come across it. That could be graffiti, gargoyles, Tabac signs, manhole covers or anything - doesn't have to be the stereotypical shuttered buildings or grand boulevards. In fact if all you want is beautiful buildings that have been suggested by others as safe bets, then you might as well just buy postcards imho.

Thanks for the lovely comments everyone!!

I totally agree with shooting what you love! My favs are reflection shots, food and night photography! There are so many interesting architectural inspirations in Paris that you are bound to find something that inspires you!

Please come back and share...I love to see others photos!

We have a really, really old door, the entryway to our house in France, that has probably 12 coats of green and blue and God knows what else paint on it, and we had it replaced a couple of months ago by a beautiful new, light door with engraved sand fleur de lys designs on two of the panels, and the old door has been sitting outside for a few months, and today we decided we are going to turn it into a table, an outside table by our stone wall. I can't bear to part with it, and it has such a history of paint and love. It dates from 1890, and I can't bear to part with it. It weighs a ton and even the two of us can't easily move it, but we figured out today that we could put a thin board of wood under it and slide it along our wall and get it moved, so here we go!

Anyway, I got sidetracked because when I travel I am always fascinated by doors and windows and architectural details in small Romanesque churches around here.

Art Deco Metro entrances are great subjects.
The view up and down the funicular to Montmartre.
Store windows--I have a beautiful one of a bridal hat shop!!
A marionette store on Ile st. Louis.

I love the lovely ornate facades of Paris' grandes gares or main train station facades such as Gare du Nord and neighboring Gare de L'Est; the Gare du Lyon; Gare d'AUsterlitz; Gare Saint-Lazare; and the former Gare d'Orsay:

https://www.google.com/search?q=faca...w=1745&bih=868

https://www.google.com/search?q=gare...w=1745&bih=868

https://www.google.com/search?q=gare...w=1745&bih=868

https://www.google.com/search?q=gare...w=1745&bih=868

https://www.google.com/search?q=gare...w=1745&bih=868

https://www.google.com/search?q=gare...w=1745&bih=868

What beautiful pictures!

Thanks a lot everyone!
Great recommendations, and those were good pictures jamikins.
I found the the roofs of Galeries Lafayette has good views.

Ever since I was a child, I have always thought that the Opéra Garnier is the best looking building in Paris.

(And the inside is even better.)

and also, try your hand at street photography, and that doesn't have to include people.

"the street" in Paris, is incredibly rich, visually, because it is use for walking, little shops line it, there are markets, lots of interesting details...

to me, all that is more "typically parisian" than are buildings and façades.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rethin...n/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rethin...ual/7671288680

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rethin...n/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rethin...n/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rethin...n/photostream/

Hi aschwinb,

I'm going to say -- don't overlook the obvious.

I was walking by Notre Dame one evening last November, and I glanced up and was just dumb-struck. The building was illuminated with lights that seemed to make the walls alive; it was glowing and vibrant with golden and yellow warmth. I must have taken about 100 photos of it from every angle; it was just simply beautiful. So, even though every person who has ever been to Paris has thousands of photos of Notre Dame . . . don't dismiss it. Highly recommend you check it out after dark.

Have fun as you plan!

s

I totally agree with kerouac regarding Palais Garnier. Love the lobby and the ceilings.