For the work to be exhibited at the La Residence and Metropole, Laval used a digital camera, and no dedicated artificial light. He made all of his images between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The images will hang in the Metropole's garden (exhibit opens with a reception in L'Orangerie at 6pm on April 14) and in the lobby at La Residence.

"These images should inspire many of our guests to become more ambitious flâneur (city strollers) as they look out for the same sort of brilliant glimpses of this city," said Franck Lafourcade, general manager of the Hotel Metropole Hanoi.

The oldest photos in Laval's collection date back to December 2007 when he first ventured into the streets of Hanoi with his camera. He discovered a new urban landscape, transformed by the absence of harsh, flooding daylight into a more magical place, alive with colors and textures that require the company of starlight and moonlight for resolution.

"I grew up in Hue, and I know this city like the back of my hand," said Phan Trong Minh, general manager of La Residence, "but Sebastien's images are showing me something brand new."

Laval picked up photography as a young man, inspired by his grandfather in Paris. He made his first trip to Vietnam in the early 1990s, documenting the lives of ethnic minorities, and exhibited this work at the Hue Festival in 2008 and 2010, and then again in 2014.

For the Hue Festival 2016, he has published a new book, entitled Hue: City of Crying Stones that's composed of photos, poetry and commentary by Vietnamese scholars. Philippe Bouler wrote the text for the book.

For photography lovers in Hue City, visit No. 5 Le Loi Street at the address of La Residence where the exhibition is on display throughout the Hue Festival. Check out the hotel's website www.la-residence-hue.com.

After the hotel exhibits, the images will hang in the Art Vietnam Gallery at 24 Ly Quoc Su in Hanoi.

About LA RESIDENCE HUE HOTEL & SPA - MGALLERY BY SOFITEL

Set on a two-hectare site with 200 meters of frontage on the fabled Perfume River, La Residence celebrated its grand opening in December 2005 after a painstaking restoration of the 1930-built mansion. The hotel's distinctive bowed façade, its long horizontal lines and nautical flourishes are hallmarks of the streamline moderne school of art deco architecture.

The hotel's 122 rooms and suites, restaurants, lounges, bars and conference room are tricked out in complementary art-deco furnishings and décor that evoke both the 1920s and 1950s. The hotel's fine-dining venue, Le Parfum, serves Mediterranean and French cuisine, as well as dishes from an expansive Vietnamese menu.

The hotel and its spa were named to the Condé Nast Traveler Hot List in 2007. More recently, the hotel has been selected for inclusion in Condé Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards 2014 and in Travel + Leisure's  T+L 500 list of the world's best hotels  for 2013 and 2014.