I left Chicago September 16, 2014 at 6:25 pm central time and arrived in Paris Charles de Gaulle at 9:31 Paris time on the morning of September 17, 2014.

On the flight over, I couldn’t help but notice the full moon. When I got to my room, I glanced at the “LightTrac” app on my Ipad and noticed that the moon would be aligned with the Jardins du Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower around 10:00 pm that night.  A plan began forming and I knew I wanted to be at the Trocadero in time to get set up by 10:00. I then took a nap.

I woke up around 3:00 pm and gathered my camera, tripod, spare batteries, and maps into my backpack and headed out.

This map gives an overview of my journey. Our layover hotel is in the footprint of the Eiffel Tower and is shown on the far left of the map.

I took the subway to the Notre Dame Cathedral, shown on the far right side of the map, and began taking pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Here is a Wikipedia link for more information about the cathedral.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_de_Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside Notre Dame

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After visiting Notre Dame, I walked across the bridge to the Ile Saint-Louis and had dinner.

La Brasserie de l’isle Saint-Louis.

Scene from Ile Saint Louis.

After dinner, I began walking along the Seine heading to the Trocadero and took the following pictures:

The moon over the Louvre

 

I arrived at the Trocadero in time to set my camera up.  These next three photos show 1) the moon approaching the Eiffel Tower, 2) the moon lined up with the Tower, and 3) the moon sliding away from the Tower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While shooting these pictures I noticed couples dancing the Tango to the sounds of a lone guitar player on the platform above.  I was approached by a gentleman, communicating in our best broken English and French, and asked if I would take pictures of the guitar player and the dancing couples.  Apparently, their scheduled photographer didn’t show. I told him I would be glad to.  In light of the language barrier, I didn’t try to tell him that I had the wrong camera and lenses to try to take night moving pictures.  A few of the pictures came out better than I thought.
Here is one.

After spending a beautiful night in Paris, I walked back to my hotel and went to bed.