A Tale Of Little Belle In Colmar France

Since moving to Europe I knew we would have access to breathtaking castles and scenery that inspired so many fairytales that I grew up loving. I knew that this would make my daughter’s childhood enchanting and special! One of the things I wanted to do creatively was to recreate scenes from my favorite fairy tales with my daughter, at the locations that inspired the stories! Just like her mommy, my little one is a huge Disney princess fan and fairy tale lover! What an incredible way for me to bond with my daughter and share in her magical experience as a little Princess growing up in the land of enchantment, adventure, and history! Since she is just three years old, I wanted to do something special for her to always remember this special time in Europe, even if she won’t remember everything when she is older!

Our first stop was visiting the storybook village of Colmar, France. It is said that Colmar was the inspiration for Belle’s village in Beauty and the Beast. One look at a photo of the town and it is easy to see why! Here you will find the fountain that is referred to as Belle’s Fountain, remarkably similar to the one from the classic movie.

I asked my then 2.5 year old if she wanted to be Belle and take pictures. She was all about it since she absolutely loves dressing up (as you can see from her special dress up corner in her bedroom)! I showed her a picture of the fountain scene and we watched it over and over until she was satisfied. Then I got her the perfect basket, a blue note book, her little plush lamb and she started practicing for her big photoshoot!

I wanted to find a dress that looked like Belle’s but was also not the typical store bought dress. During our visit to the beautiful Triberg in the Black Forest in Germany, I discovered this little dirndl shop. In the window was a blue and white dirndl. I knew it would be perfect. We also found a perfect basket in Triberg as well. I knew that these classical props would give the photos the authentic feel I was going for!

Ava was so excited for this big photoshoot. When I say big I mean just me, my camera, and my husband… but to her it was huge! I needed to impress this little Princess!

We went to Colmar, France for a weekend getaway. The first day we walked around to experience this beautiful fairytale village. Ava immediately compared it to Beauty and  the Beast and was so excited! She was singing the song up and down the magical little streets. We found the fountain and she went straight to it and started practicing her pose!

Early the next morning we got up and started prepping for our exciting day. We watched the scene from Beauty and the Beast as we were getting ready while singing and dancing. I will cherish this memory forever, and to capture it is the ultimate gift! As soon as she got her dress on she was running around pretending she was Belle. It was adorable! We walked to the fountain and in-between tourist groups; we got to have the fountain all to ourselves! She quickly hopped on and got to work posing away! My husband is always so supportive of my crazy ideas but Ava was just too darn cute to not have a wonderful time with this project.

A few minutes later and we were done! We were all so excited with the results. Ava absolutely loved seeing the pictures. It is now her favorite scene in the movie and she screams with such joy “it’s me it’s me,” when watching the movie!  Next up we have our Rapunzel floating lantern photo shoot. We have a few more fairy tale photoshoots planned at beautiful locations in Europe that we are all so excited about!

We hope our fairytale photoshoots bring as much joy to others as it does for us. I would love to hear what you think! Be sure to follow along with our Instagram to stay up to date with our fairy tale photo series!

xo Vanessa

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