Eiffel Across The Seine

I shot this as we began an unexpected adventure walking 4 miles through Paris at night from The Eiffel Tower to our hotel. We brought just enough cash with us to catch a bus to the Eiffel, purchase tickets to go up it, and purchase a meal afterward. However we forgot the bank card at the hotel, and did not have enough cash with us for a bus or cab back. Oops. After some fretting, we just accepted that we were walking. And not only that, navigating by the river, and maps at the Metro stations. We knew our hotel was about 4 blocks up from Notre Dame, which is on the river, so if we basically just followed the Seine from the Eiffel Tower until we reached Notre Dame, we would be able to find our way. We crossed over the river a couple times and eventually made our way to St. Germain Boulevard using Metro maps (which aren't really maps). That took us almost directly to our hotel, as it was between St. Germain and Notre Dame. What an adventure though! I enjoyed shooting all the interesting sights we came across that night, and had fun playing with long hand held exposures, in some homage I suppose to the famous impressionists who painted this river so many times, and inspired me to attempt to make art from a very young age. The whole experience of watching the sun set and the moon rise from the top of the Eiffel Tower, and seeing that incredible city lit up at night from those heights, would not have been the same without proceeding down into it and having a wonderful adventure wandering through all those lights and taking in sounds and sights and smells we never would have experienced if not for a moment of forgetfulness! Who knows in what form blessings will come. Stress can turn into beauty sometimes.