On a recent holiday to Provence I couldn’t stop taking photos of textures and type; the flaking paint on shutters, the rotting and patched up doors, fading lettering from old shop signs. Maybe its the light (and the weather) but the colours just all looked amazing. I can’t wait to be back.
If you’re looking for three ‘different’ places to visit near the Provence / Gard border, these places certainly offer a break from medieval hilltop villages and sunflower fields:
• Take a little train around the salt flats next to the walled town of Aigues Mortes in the Camargue.
• See famous paintings projected at enormous sizes over the floors and walls of a former bauxite quarry in Les Baux de Provence.
• Take a walk around the spectacular former ochre quarry in Roussillon; it’s like a mini Utah!
Of course, villages in southern France can be very very pretty indeed… I thought these were the prettiest of them: Gordes, Roussillon and St Remy.
If I got started on all the delicious things to eat in France I’d never stop… suffice to say that the French do marvellous things with dairy products… mmn…