Naughty Paris

Tuesday July 31 is our final day and night of shooting for the Naughty Paris Guide. Kirsten heads back to Toronto on Wednesday morning, so we have to make sure we get the must-have shots today.

We start off rather late, at 2pm, because we know we'll be up late shooting night-time images. The day begins at a beauty spa, the Boudoir du Marais. I've visited the place before and liked the decor, very pretty with exposed stone walls and elegant chandeliers and mirrors. However, when we arrive it seems like the place has been almost emptied out. "Are you getting ready to close up for the summer?" I ask. "No, we just moved in today. I bought the spa from the former owner."

Ah hah. She assures me that they will not change it at all. This is the most difficult aspect of writing any guidebook, the fact that places close, redecorate, or otherwise change completely between time of researching and the time of publication. I settle in for a manicure (I'm the hand model today, and dammit I need a manicure!) while Kirsten begins photographing the decor elements. The spa has a manicure "bar" and you can rent the whole place for private parties.

I'm more of a blood-red nail polish kind of girl, but my friends keep telling me that's not very "summer", so I go for the most obnoxious shade of bubble-gum pink. I can't help but think that I'm not tan enough (or blonde enough) to pull this off.

After my manicure, we go to lunch and the photographer has to return to her hotel to upload the photos so she has enough memory space to continue shooting (yes, this is all done with a digital SLR, so instead of carrying around rolls of film, she's carrying memory cards). We arrange to meet up with Stephen Clarke for a cameo shot.

Stephen reading a Parisian newspaper article about sexual habits of the French.

We are running a bit late for one of the most difficult shoots of the whole guide, Cris et Chuchotements, the last full-time fetish and s/m club in Paris. I was going to take the car, but 6pm traffic is looking bad so I think it will be easier to cross town on the metro. We happen to meet a fellow American, Byron, traveling around Paris with one of my guidebooks sticking out of his pocket (the Michelin Green Guide Paris). He's heading the same direction, so conveniently helps clear a path through the crowded metro so we could get out with all of the equipment in one piece. "We definitely need to hire a caddy/bodyguard/assistant next time we do this," says Kirsten. I wholeheartedly agree.

On the way to the club the photographer spots some oysters she wants to shoot in front of the Wepler Brasserie (Place de Clichy). I distract the oyster guy with questions about eating them during the months without "R" in them while Kirsten shoots away. So we're almost a half hour late for our fetish club appointment, not usually a problem in France, but a problem today. It's 7pm and the owner has to leave at 7:30pm, barely enough time for the model to change and for Kirsten to set up and adjust to the low lights.

My camera flash lights up the whole bar area, where Kirsten is quickly setting up.

We pick just two rooms to photograph, the bar area (which looks pretty harmless aside from a basket of riding crops next to the sofa and a pair of hand cuffs casually hanging from a hook) and one of the "play" rooms with a large bird cage and other light restraining devices. We do not shoot in the whipping room (the light wasn't good), nor the "medical exam" room (too creepy). I should mention the club is closed, so we are the only ones in there, bumbling around in the dark and trying not to trip over the various steps.

I was surprised this one came out so well: the model in her fetishwear dress and the photographer peeking out from under the spiral stairs.

After being shoo'd out of here rather quickly, we hop in a taxi and head to the Pont Neuf for some sunset shots with models Marcus and Eva, who are running about 15 minutes behind us. The two weeks of shooting, last-day exhaustion, and the endless rushing around finally break down our gentle Canadian photographer and she starts embracing her inner obnoxious photographer. She kicks a couple (politely) out of the little balcony we want to use (it's in the perfect place for the back ground and angle of the light) and quickly get the models in the right poses before we lose the light.

From Kirsten's point of view.

She's standing on the other side of the bridge, too far away for the models to hear her directions, so I'm standing next to them with a cell phone, repeating the orders that Kirsten is barking out. "Tell her to put her left leg up." "Tell him to pull her closer at the hips." "Stop posing, just act natural!" and finally, all decorum breaks down and I hear Kirsten yell, "Act like you want to f*** his brains out!"

(she tells me later she was aware of a few passers-by coming to a halt at that point)

I pause (probably blushing)....then I say, "Act like you really want to be in a room alone right now!" The models, bless them, finally get it and Kirsten gets her shot.


From my point of view on the bridge (it looks like Eva is biting his head off from this angle!)

The models don't actually know each other in "that way", but they fake it pretty well! I considered at one point just finding couples kissing on the bridge and asking their permission to shoot them for the guide, but there are so many factors to consider:

- will they be dressed right?
- will they keep doing the same thing over and over until we've got the perfect shot?
- will they let us make them stand in very unnatural poses which actually appear more natural on film?

There are so many things we can't control in the photo sessions, that we decide against this and go with our own models. We then make Eva and Marcus stand under the Pont Neuf (which is more typically sexy than romantic). We all have to breathe through our mouths because the stench of urine is a bit too strong (not very romantic, indeed). The next shot involved the woman straddling the man on a marble bench. Bless her (again) for trying so hard to pretend her knees weren't in excruciating pain while Kirsten kept promising "Almost done!"

And that was the last shoot with the models. We celebrated with dinner at l'Ecluse at St-Michel, then rushed back out at midnight to shoot one the Musée de l'Erotisme before it closed (at 2am). We detoured at the Eiffel Tower while Kirsten searched for the angle that the taxi took her past the night before, so we didn't arrive at Pigalle again until 1am. No one else was in the museum that night, so it was pretty easy to get in a few good shots without worrying about avoiding the public.

I perused the visitor's book at the museum, and found quite a few notes from women like this.

The famous "tongue chair" in the front window of the museum.

Pigalle at 2am is always lively (bus loads of Moulin Rouge clients, of course), but not necessarily the place you feel comfortable as a woman walking around with very expensive camera equipment. Luckily the peep show hawkers don't bother the women (they're looking to pull in the men walking around), so we quickly take a few pics of the neon windmill at the Moulin Rouge and then go back to the car.

We return to a more elegant district of Paris: the Place Vendôme, Champs-Elysées, Avenue Montaigne, etc., where the photographer gets some night shots of the facades.

This is the absolute very last and final photo shoot (I took this from the car as she set up her tripod on the square).

I sleep for two hours while the photographer packs up, then we drive to Ladurée for a final breakfast (and macarons!) before I drop her off at Charles de Gaulle airport at 9:30am.

That's all folks! For the rest of the month, while the rest of the country is on vacation, I will be finishing up the text editing while Kirsten processes the photographs and the designer creates the final layout.

When will you get to see the final Naughty Paris Guide? Stay tuned...a small number of copies will be available by the holidays, before the official launch in January 2008.

Bisous, and good night!
Heather signing off....