Paris. The city of lights, the city of romance, the city of amazing monuments. There is nothing more captivating than looking up at the Eiffel Tower and realizing just how bigger than life it really is. But imagine if all of your favorite sights were empty. Arc de Triomphe, Sacre-Coeur, Notre Dame. There is nothing more comforting than the city when it is quiet.
[ How it all started ]
It all started with the photo above. I was walking along in Le Marais with a friend when it hit me. “What if we had a picnic in the middle of the street at the Arc De Triomphe at sunrise?” I expected an extreme “are you crazy?!” When she agreed, we did it. And that set off a chain reaction when we realized just how beautiful the city is empty. I think I have a new love of seeing a city when everyone else is asleep.
This isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you can do 1-2 days of sunrise/ early morning (6-8 AM) sightseeing in Paris, you’ll thank me later.
We ended up doing the Notre-Dame, Arc de Triomphe, and Eiffel Tower. If we had had more time, I would have thrown the Louvre into the mix too.
[ How to do it ]
1 ) Figure out where you want to go
If you don’t have the luxury of being in Paris for a long time, you might not have the time to hit every monument in the early hours of the morning. I do think however, that you could do about the 4 big ones over a span of 2 days.
Some of the famous monuments (which most of you probably already know #duh) :
- Eiffel Tower
- Arc de Triomphe
- Sacré-Coeur
- Notre-Dame
- Louvre
- Les Invalides
- Pantheon
- Palais Royal
2 ) Figure out how to get there
If you’re going right at sunrise, likely the metro won’t be running yet. You’ll need to get a cab or Uber for at least the first location. For example, we did both the Arc de Triomphe and the Tour Eiffel in the same day. We Ubered to the Arc, and by the time we finished, the metro was running. Then we took the metro to the Tour Eiffel.
3 ) If you’re going for the ‘gram … plan what your shots are going to look like.
You can skip over this if you’re really only going for the views. But if you’re doing this partially for the photos, this part REALLY REALLY has to be planned in advance. Nothing is open at 5 AM. For all these photos, my photographer Amy O’Brien and I had to pick up everything the day before. The balloons, flowers, croissants, etc etc. And to be honest, I think these little details really made the photos.
4 ) Don’t forget to take it all in.
While you’re running around the city, don’t forget to take a minute to take it all in. I sat on a bench just looking at the sun come up and it was probably my favorite memory from the entire trip.
Interested in more Paris content? Visit the travel section here.
