Notre-Dame de Dijon and the owl

The church of Notre-Dame was built between about 1220 and 1250, and its west front is unlike anything else in Burgundy: three tiers of arcading with rows of gargoyles projecting from each, dozens of them, restored and largely re-carved in the nineteenth century. Stand back across the little Place Notre-Dame with a longer lens and the rows read as a graphic band; step under them and you get a canopy of stone animals over your subject's head.

On the tower is the Jacquemart, a mechanical clock with figures that strike the hours — brought from Flanders in 1382 as a war trophy by Philip the Bold, and added to over the centuries. On the north flank, in the narrow Rue de la Chouette, is the owl: a small, almost featureless block of worn stone that Dijon adopted as its emblem. Everyone touches it with the left hand and makes a wish, which is why it has no features left, and it is a nice, unforced thing to photograph a couple doing.

The brass owls set into the pavement mark a walking trail through the old town, and Notre-Dame is its most-visited stop. Rue de la Chouette is narrow and shaded — good for even light, awkward for anything wide — so it works best in the morning before the trail fills up.

Inside, Notre-Dame is a working church and free to enter. Services take priority, so a session waits them out; ask the parish about tripods and commercial shoots before the day.