Book a Family Photoshoot
in Épernay

This happens all the time, and our family photographers are prepared for it. The secret is that the best family photos don't come from asking kids to pose — they come from play. Your photographer will turn the session into a game: racing along the beach at Biarritz, feeding ducks in Annecy, hunting for gargoyles on Paris' old churches, storming the towers of Carcassonne. Tantrums and shy phases get waited out with a break and a pain au chocolat, and sessions are scheduled around naps and meals. Even a session that feels chaotic in the moment produces wonderful genuine images — often better than the ones where everyone behaved.

There's no wrong age — each stage photographs differently and beautifully. Babies bring quiet, tender close-ups; toddlers bring motion and hilarious candid moments; school-age kids love the adventure of exploring châteaux and beaches on camera; teens relax once they realise nobody is forcing stiff poses. Multi-generation shoots with grandparents are among the most treasured bookings we see, especially on family reunion trips to Provence or the Loire. The one practical tip: with children under five, book morning sessions when energy and light are both at their best. Your Photo France photographer adapts the pace and games to the ages in your group.

Aim for a coordinated palette rather than identical outfits: two or three soft colors that everyone wears in their own way. Creams, soft blues, sage and sand tones look wonderful against Paris' pale stone, Provence's ochre walls and the Atlantic's grey-green sea. Skip big logos, characters and neon shades. Dress kids in clothes they can move and play in — the session will involve running, climbing steps and sitting on beaches or lawns. Bring a change of clothes for little ones (French fountains and beaches are irresistible) and comfortable shoes for cobbled lanes. Your photographer will send simple styling tips for your specific location and season when you book.

Professional photoshoots in Épernay start from €310. Packages vary by duration and the number of edited photos — an hour along the Avenue de Champagne and its gates, or two hours that add the vineyard slope at Hautvillers or the Verzenay windmill. Most couples book 60 to 90 minutes; anything that crosses the Marne into the villages needs the longer option.

The Avenue de Champagne itself — a straight kilometre of nineteenth-century mansions, iron gates and clipped hedges — with the neo-Renaissance Château Perrier at its western end. Then the chalk cellars beneath it, if the house allows cameras. Out of town, Hautvillers with its wrought-iron shop signs and the abbey church where Dom Pérignon is buried, and the Verzenay windmill alone on its knoll of vines.

The avenue runs roughly east to west, so morning light comes down it cleanly and evening light rakes the facades — both work, and both are quiet, because Épernay is a working town rather than a crowded one. In the vines, aim for the last two hours of daylight. Season: green from June, harvest and gold leaf from late September into mid-October, bare wood November to April.