Normandy Village | Berkeley, CA

A Fairytale Village in Northern California

Location: Spruce Street and Hearst Ave

Normandy Village, also known as Thornburg Village, is a neighborhood in Berkeley that resembles a French Village. As someone who adores European Architecture, it’s definitely my favorite continent, I HAD to see this place in person. Lucky for me, it’s not too far from where I live in California.

Getting to Normandy Village wasn’t difficult. We took BART to the Downtown Berkeley station and from there walked towards UC Berkeley. We stopped at a boba shop on the way too. Because who goes to Berkeley and doesn’t indulge in some boba? After the pit stop, we kept walking towards campus. Once reaching Oxford St., we headed left towards Hearst Ave. After that, we turned right onto Hearst and within a few minutes we were at the Village.

 

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The village can be a little easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for; so make sure to pull up Maps if you don’t see it. The “village” is actually a few houses and condominiums next to each other, but the rest of the neighborhood looks like normal apartments and homes in Berkeley. Please remember to be respectful and quiet too since people do live in the village.

If you’re wondering if there is a reason to visit this small neighborhood in Berkeley, it’s basically just a good place to take picture. Whether it’s graduation pictures, outfit photos for Instagram, updating a photography portfolio, or a piece for your Bay Area blog.

We were fortunate that no one else was at the Village taking pictures on this day. There can be a crowd of people on weekends according to someone who lives in the area. We only saw a few students and residents coming home while we took our pictures. I should note that we had gone during Covid and businesses in the campus area had much shorter hours. However, we were not as fortunate in other ways.

Normally Berkeley has overcast and slightly cold weather, but we got unfortunately lucky. By that I mean, it was a very sunny and warm day which is NOT ideal for photography. Especially if you are trusting someone who isn’t a professional to take the photos of you. There was awkward shadows cast on my face and on the buildings in MANY of the pictures, as well as harsh sunlight. If you’re with someone who’s a professional, they’ll notice this and tell you where you should move/face. The BEST and most PERFECT day and time to go to Normandy Village for a photoshoot is on a weekday, and when the weather is more cloudy than sunny. We went on a Tuesday around 2 PM. After 5 PM would be better to avoid the bright sunlight.

If you do end up going on a bright day, a little modeling hack I have for you is wear a big hat. This will prevent a lot of eye squinting and the shadows on your face won’t look as awkward if you are directly facing the sun.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this post! As most of you know, I haven’t been leaving the country much since the start of Covid. Exploring little places nearby has been the only way I could get my travel fix. Visiting the real Normandy in France would be a much more exciting experience if you’re able to travel there. But if you’re someone like me who is in the area, it’s worth stopping by for a little photo session.

-Ayla♥

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