Luke Shepard's Le Flaneur: Paris In 2,000 Images (VIDEO)

Have you ever wondered what a place looks like free of crowds and noise?

Luke Shepard, a student at The American University of Paris, created a time-lapse video based on over 2,000 images of Paris to show just that.

Anne Ditmeyer of IntelligentTravel, the blog from National Geographic, spoke with Shepard about the project, entitled Le Flâneur, who told them that the idea came from his love of walking the streets of Paris at night:

As to where the inspiration came from, it was my love for walking around Paris late at night. I have walked home from opposite ends of Paris very early in the morning after long nights out with friends, and it is always amazing. In most areas, Paris dies in the middle of the night: there is no one to be seen, the lights are turned off on all the monuments, and very few cars pass by. I feel as though this video shows this other side of Paris that I love. I feel that not everyone sees it, especially not tourists who might spend most of their time exploring the city during the day. As a night owl, this is the part of Paris I often see.

This project harks back to a similar project by Corinne Vionnet, who superimposed hundreds of images of world monuments to create a project called "Photo Opportunities." The notion behind these two pieces is the same: showing a side of a place, building or monument that isn't normally seen by tourists and the public.

Shepard's video is incredibly fun to watch, like taking a two-minute vacation.

WATCH:

Le Flâneur (music by The XX) from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.

Comments

[Akizme72]

06:29 PM on 03/06/2011

Oh this just made me a little bit homesick... I used to have terrible insomnia while attending the Uni in Paris and I would often walk from my tiny studio apartment in the 14th arrondissement all the way to Barbes or Pigalles or Montmartre and back though the night. My faovrite time of day would always be right before dawn, when the city wakes up (Thank you Mr Dutronc for your ownderful song "Il est 5 heures, Paris s'eveille"...). And then I would go back home, crash on the bed and sleep through my classes. Needless to say, I never graduated but I got to know Paris inside and out....

[Red45]

01:54 PM on 03/05/2011

Beautiful. Paris is so beautiful. But what is the reference to 2,000 images when it was all rolling video?

[Elliot Dodge DeBruyn]

07:10 AM on 03/05/2011

How did he get those shots over the river at the end? Was he on a different bridge? Beautiful video, tons of work.

[WillCooney]

01:46 AM on 03/05/2011

Simply beautiful! It's like waking up in the middle of the night and looking at your lover and thinking "How beautiful you are when you're asleep!"

[Saxton]

11:41 AM on 03/05/2011

Wow, that is really beautiful.

[SeenItBefore]

09:35 PM on 03/04/2011

Gotta go, because Paris always makes me weepy.

My dream some 50 years ago was to live near the Moulin Rouge and paint until I loosed these mortal coils.

But, life got in the way.

[Red45]

01:56 PM on 03/05/2011

I hope you at least have had the opportunity to visit Paris regardless. It's such an amazing city and so very beautiful. Bon voyage!

[brahdog]

08:33 PM on 03/04/2011

un jour...

[AllowMeToObserve]

08:15 PM on 03/04/2011

A very cool concept, but too much time spent on too few sites. I kept thinking, "OK, let's move on." There's so much to see in Paris that looks great at night.

[Cheryl Pegues]

12:12 PM on 03/05/2011

I agree. Clearly a total tourist view of what Paris is. No neighborhoods, no people, no shops, no café sitting, no traffic jams, no flowers, no Metro, no markets, no culture, no places where people who live here actually hang out, and only what you would see if you did the standardized half-day tour on a bus. But nicely done filming-wise, other than the half spent at the fountain on the Place de la Concord.

[softscultpor]

05:56 AM on 03/07/2011

That is arguable. He starts out with a nondescript image of a house, and pans out onto a Paris panoramic. He could have been in Pinville, Oregon based on that first shot.

Secondly, part of what defines Paris is it's monuments and landmarks. As someone who is currently living here, I appreciate it because it forces me to stop and reflect on the things that I normally pass by without a second thought. In that way, it is not touristic. It's clearly coming from a someone who lives here, and appreciates the oft-ignored grandeur of the city he lives in.

[Woods-shade]

10:03 AM on 03/04/2011

So utterly beautiful. Would love to spend a whole month...ANY time of year.

[netzwerg]

09:36 AM on 03/04/2011

Cool! Makes me feel like I need to hop on the high speed train to Paris tonight with my girlfriend to escape silly carnival here in Cologne this weekend.

[IMSickOfAllOfEm]

10:18 PM on 03/03/2011

Awesome!!!

[liberalbug]

09:27 PM on 03/03/2011

Je l'aime.

[Jebbushnot]

06:37 PM on 03/03/2011

Gee, how about a travel video for ....say...Newark? Detroit? St.Paul,
Brooklyn, or Indianapolis......you say
they are ugly and depressing....yeah,
they are..Nixon 6 years.Reagan 8 years, Bush I
Bush II 8 Years= Lots of guns...little butter.

[Elliot Dodge DeBruyn]

07:07 AM on 03/05/2011

I've been all over the world and St. Paul is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to.

[FunMe]

05:53 PM on 03/03/2011

I will be there in June. Soooooo looking forward to experiencing that amazing city.

[liberalbug]

09:27 PM on 03/03/2011

enjoy--it's one of the prettiest cities on the planet. I hope you have a lot of time.

[Hermione1973]

11:11 PM on 03/03/2011

Have a wonderful time! Make sure you do the "touristy" things, but try to go off the beaten path, too. Just walking around is an experience in itself. My husband and I went to Paris last June (I had been there briefly about 20 years ago) and it was heavenly. Enjoy!

[odyssey58]

05:15 PM on 03/03/2011

Thanks for the memories. Paris wonderful!

[ZenCrusader]

05:09 PM on 03/03/2011

Thank you. In my dreams I live on the Ille St. Louis. Paris truly is the most beautiful city in our world !