The time right after the sun goes below the horizon and the sky painted in glowing deep blue is the perfect moment to see the landscapes and glittering lights in France in their most enchanting form.
This is the blue hour, or ‘heure bleue’ as the French called it.
Visiting France in winter months means the hours of daylight gets extremely short, and as I’m not an early bird, by the time I arrived at the second or third destinations on my itinerary for the day it was already in the blue hour. Which, also meant I was lucky enough to capture some amazing blue that put a magical touch of Instagram-like effect to every shot I made.
Warning: These blue images from my travel in France might provoke feelings of post-vacation blue, if you happen to be just like me, found yourself longing to return to the land of macaroons after a recent visit…
Le Seine Paris during the blue hour
Just a happy coincidence that I was strolling by the Seine with my electric blue Tony Bourch pouch & my royal blue down feather jacket in the blue hour!
The illuminated Musee d’Orsay on the left bank of Le Seine glows like a gem!
Twinkling Christmas lights in city of Paris served as the perfect backdrop
Le Tour Eiffel shines and sparkles like a diamond with the deep blue curtain in the background, nothing’s more oh-so-paris than this!
Place De La Concorde Paris
As the grand lady Palace of Versailles lights up…
At the front gate of Palace of Versailles bidding farewell till my next visit
The million dollar view of the skyline of Monte Carlo at the happenings of Winter Carnival
French Alps in the distance as seen on our way to Cote d’Azur
Oh Merry Christmas big fella! Mr Snowman spreading the festive cheers as we drove on to the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, Cote d’Azur
The most precious souvenir to take home from Nice! Woke up at 5:30am for our London-bound flight from Nice, walked out to the balcony in my room at Hotel Suisse and this was how Nice took my breath away…
See the amazing fairytale-like transformation of colours in the skyline during sunset in Paris in motion! You’ll be so in love with this city of light…
Grand Marnier “Sunset Hour” from Justin Stokes on Vimeo.
Feeling inspired to create some beautiful blue hour images during your next journey? First of all you’ll need a blue hour calculator to find out the exact time to capture your favourite city through the lens in glowing blue, for this I recommend BlueHourSite.
One other little known fact is that the blue hour is a travel photographer’s most faithful friend – regardless of the weather condition, whether it’s rainy, foggy or snowy, you can always be assured that the sky will capture blue in the camera during the blue hour!
Got a few of your precious blue hour photos from your journey? Welcome to share them by tagging your photos using #lacenruffles on Instagram, or tweet your pics to me @Lacenruffles and I’ll merrily do a shout out as beautiful travel photos make me happy
Happy snapping x
Juliet