A Love-byte™ In Paris

I’m Ben, winner of the 2009 Look of Love promotion conducted by Studio 2000. My prize was a free photo shoot in Pais valued at over $26,000.

Last year I was looking out a University window near my home of Adelaide, dreaming of a holiday to Europe, completely unaware that just seven short months later I would be in the midst of planning a photo shoot in one of the worlds most iconic cites, Paris!

The planning process has been extremely exciting with talk of a styling session, a Paris shopping spree and of course a photo shoot around the city of love! The excitement and anticipation of this amazing experience is definitely starting to build as this trip of a lifetime draws closer! Please keep locked to this blog as I will be updating it regularly in the weeks to come!

It’s finally here! After months of tedious waiting and several frantic weeks of organisation, I am only days away from hopping on a plane to the City of Love for the trip of a lifetime!

Since my last blog there has been a mad rush between my stylist, event manager and myself to finalise travel arrangments, hotels and most importantly my different looks and styles for the shoot in Paris! This was so exciting as it involved a $1,000 shopping budget with which I chose to purchase an amazing suit and several other bits and pieces.

To be honest the whole process has been so surreal – I still can’t quite believe that in just a few short days I will be walking the streets of one of the world’s most iconic cities!

Until next time, adieu!

Flying in from London meant that I was the last of the Paris crew to arrive in the city of love at around 7pm local time. It was a very interesting and challanging start to the trip however with communication difficuilties arrising between myself and my airport transportation. I was finally, however, able to locate my driver who took me on a quick un-expected tour through Paris.

Eventually I arrived at my stunning hotel 10 minutes walk from the Eiffel Tower. Upon arrival I was met by Christian (my photographer), Sara (my make-up artist) and Chloe (the other winning contestant from Sydney). As it was around 11pm and I still hadnt eaten dinner Christian offered to take me out to dinner at a Parisian resturant around the corner from our hotel where we discussed the plans for the exciting week to come!

Despite my late night and the rest of the crew being greatly jet-lagged we managed to meet in the hotel cafe at 10am for breakfast. It was at this time that we discussed and planned for our week ahead. After breakfast Chloe and I went for a stroll around the city which took us to the Champs Elysees and Le Arce De Triumph. Having seen these structures in countless movies and photographs made for a sureel experience.

After getting lost several times and a few interesting conversations with the French locals we made our way to a local hair dressing salon as I needed a haircut. This also proved rather entertaining as my hairdresser was not fluent in English which meant lots of hand guestures, pointing and animation! When Chloe and I arrived back at our hotel we were advised by Christian and Sara that we were going to do our first photo shoot that evening in the streets of Paris!! After makeup and styling we were taken to an amazing street which lead up to the Effile Tower, the perfect back drop for any photos! The shoot took a couple hours as Chloe and I traded the spotlight and we finished up at around 12pm.

After a midnight dinner, we arrived back at our hotel at around 1am, where I had an unexpected but very interesting 2 hour talk with our receptioniast I finally made my way up to my room for a much needed sleep.

After a precious few hours sleep I met with the crew down stairs for breakfast and the news that we would be shooting at the Moulin Rouge that evening! However as Chloe and I had the entire day to ourselves we decided to take a self guided tour along the main river in Paris which led past the main historical structures of the city, eventually taking us to the famous Notre Dame Cathedrial. The entire walk took us over 4 hours however it was an amazing and quite inspiring exerpeince. On the way back we stopped at the Musee Du Louvre which is an amazing museum surrounded by glass pyramids and spectacular water fountains which finally led out to a large grassed area finishing at the Champs Elysees.

When we arrived back at our hotel we had to quickly get ready for makeup and styling before our driver picked us up for our shoot at the Moulin Rouge. Arriving at the Rouge was exciting in itself. It appeared to be quite a ‘Red Light District’ in Paris and the vast crowds of tourists around our set added to the occasion. After our shoot we were swammped by tourists who must have got the impression that we were famous and so begun asking us for photos and even auto-graphs! This was most certainly one of the most bizzare moments of my life! We finally finished up with the shoot and a late dinner at around 1pm, which was far from ideal considering we had to be up the following morning for a shoot at the Effile tower at 4am!!

4am wake up call after a late night at the Rouge was very challanging however still running on Parisian adrenilline we pushed through to a stunning sunrise at the Effile Tower. After the early morning shoot I spent the rest of the day catching up on much needed sleep.

Mid-afternoon came and as Chloe was half way through a 3 hour body art session i decided to take a solo stroll through Paris to visit some of my favourite sites and do abit of bargaining with the local souvineer retailers. That evening Chloe had a solo shoot on a beautiful bridge with the sparkling Effile Tower again used as the backdrop. I assisted in some of the lighting duties as the evening once again grew late we had dinner at a local cafe and got a good night sleep before our last day of shooting!