Kyle Hepp

August 30, 2011

During this last trip to Paris, I was originally going to go alone. I was excited for the weddings because I’d talked to the couples enough to know that both brides and both grooms were were going to be awesome. But I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of traveling solo. However, Seba needed to stay behind to work on the apartment.

I wrote that I’d be heading to Paris to shoot a wedding solo in one of my photography forums. A few days later an email popped up in my inbox from Leo Druker, a wedding photographer in Washington D.C. He saw that I’d be by myself and wanted to know if I need a second shooter in France. When I checked his website and saw where he was based I quickly emailed him to double check and find out if he knew that I’d said Paris and not Virginia. I thought maybe he was just messing with me. But Leo had never visited Paris before and said he’d always wanted to. He loves to visit new places all over the world and he’s an AMAZING travel photographer. So he offered to come be my second. I was thrilled, but to be honest, until he wrote me that he had his plane tickets confirmed, I didn’t believe him But yeah. BAM. Cool person #1 added to my “solo” trip.

Then about three weeks before I was supposed to leave, my good friend Ashley casually drops a bomb, “I think I’ll go on your Paris trip with you.” Yeah. Right. Do. Not. Believe. You. I believed her even less than I believed Leo. Because literally, her only reason for going along, aside from the fact that she loves me of course, was, “I need to renew my visa by leaving Chile again.” Most people take a seven hour bus ride to Mendoza, Argentina to do that.

About two more weeks passed, during which Ash kept mentioning things like, “When we go to Paris, ” and “During our Paris trip…” and I kept thinking she was lying. It’s not that I don’t trust Ashley. It’s that experience has taught me that most people don’t simply pick up and go to Paris on a whim. Experience has since taught me that most people don’t simply pick up and go to Pari on a whim…unless you’re Ashley Ambirge and you run a blog called The Middle Finger Project. About five days before my scheduled departure she bought her plane tickets — and managed to get on the same flights as me from Santiago to New York to Paris! BAM. Cool person #2 added to my “solo” trip.

It had been a long time since I’d had anyone other than myself and Seba to worry about while on the road. Traveling with someone can make or break a friendship. Considering how I didn’t even know Leo until we arrived at Charles de Gaulle and met him at the airport and that I’d only met Ash in Jan. of this year (and then proceeded to be out of the country for the next five months shortly after we first got together), I was a little nervous.

But all three of us are so laid back that it worked perfectly. Nobody had any crazy agendas. We all just wanted to walk around, hang out and drink some champagne. And YES. They both drank just as much champagne as me!!! HEART.

Sure, when in France, do as the Frenchmen do. But a lot of times I end up feeling really stupid drinking champagne when I’m with a big group of people and the guys pound their chests and order beers and then the women do the same because society tells us that men love women who love beer. That may be true, but I don’t like beer. And Seba still loves me.

Point being, it felt good to be amongst kindred spirits.

I had such a wonderful time with Ash and Leo.

Leo, come shoot a wedding with us in Chile. That’s a command. Ash, see you in a few days back at the Santiago airport. Never move away from Chile. That’s also a command.

Crazy awesome friends, heavy emphasis on crazy, thank you for coming with me.

Here are a few photos of our second day. This shot was taken near our beautiful hotel, which was located right by the famous Galeries Lafayette.  Yeah, there was an Opera or something near the hotel too, but who cares about arts and culture when you have an entire basement of SHOES located right around the corner

Ash has been in Chile with no respite for far too long so we spent the morning first doing some damage in H&M. SHOPPING. Yes! Don’t worry, Leo was spared. He was off doing his own thing.

My poison of choice is shoes, but I’m currently on a ban after buying two pairs of Pradas this year. That’s all the designer my budget can handle for now. And actually, even though Galeries Layfette has an entire floor dedicated to shoes, they have mostly safe and pretty boring choices as far as selection goes so I can honestly say, I wasn’t even tempted.

Same does not go for Ash when it came to the makeup department. That’s her poison of choice. The sweetest Dutch girl made her up while I marveled at the wonders of what good makeup can do for a person’s face. I mean, Ash has a gorgeous palette to begin with, but man, a little peach blush and all of a sudden she was glowing!

I don’t know why but I freaking love this shot of the Parisian metro.

I also love this photo of Ash on the metro.

We met up with Leo so we could make a Bastille Day plan!

Is there anything more French than macarons? — aside from this guy, of course. I took this picture especially for Heather. She’s written about macarons so much that she’s essentially become synonymous with the word for me. Now that’s some good branding.

Our plan consisted of going here and meeting up with some of Ash’s friends (hi Jamie!) for drinks. Lo and behold we ended up in a bar next to some Chilean men. WHAT ARE THE FREAKING ODDS?! It wasn’t the Chilean bar in Paris that we were at either. Lo and behold after less than five seconds after arrival, one of them whispered in my ear that I was beautiful. I was going to say something about that being classic Chilean men…but it’s not. Chilean men aren’t usually very aggressive. France must be influencing these guys’ Latin lover style. I didn’t even order a drink and just asked everybody if we could leave. I was starving anyways, so it was the perfect excuse to run far far away.

We headed to a nearby plaza and settled in to people watch the silly French people dancing. And me dancing There was the most random mix of music to help the Parisians celebrate Bastille day, and folks of all ages were rocking out hard on the streets.

Ash abandoned my champagne drinking quest and requested that the waiter kindly bring her a beer the size of her head. Of course the paparazzi had to photograph this event.

From there we walked to the Arch de Triumph. It was absolutely beautiful at night.

I think this picture is cool. Except maybe it’s not. I think it is because I was there and I know that literally a half second before this, these 5 people were all looking in different directions, and literally a half second after this they all walked away from the railing they were leaning up against. It was such a quick moment that they were all in sync like this. Maybe that’s why I think it was cool.

From the Arc de Triumph I headed back to the hotel. It was right around midnight and I had to get up the next day to go have breakfast at Le Royal Monceau with their marketing director. I know myself well and I know how poorly I function on little sleep so I decided to turn back while the rest of the group ventured on to go see fireworks and walk around the city in all the glory of Bastille Day. I got to the metro and immediately regretted my decision. I spent about 20 minutes going back and forth between maps trying to figure out which way to go. Then I asked a guy and his answer confused me more. I did eventually make it to the hotel. And when Ash didn’t get home until 5am because they couldn’t find a taxi, I realized I would’ve regretted the decision to stay out even more.

So this trip may not have been the most action packed trip that I’ve ever been on, but that was good. I was happy with what we saw and did. And most of all I was really happy that I got to know two extra awesome people.