Château de Villandry - A château with an awesome back yard

Of all the châteaus we visited in the Loire Valley, Château de Villandry was Donna’s favorite. Knowing how much she loves gardens, I had put Villandry on our itinerary and prayed that September was not too late to see Villandry’s famous gardens in all their splendor. The lavender was done so I assumed that nothing else would be blooming either. Boy was I wrong. As you can see from these pictures, we were not disappointed.

Impressive boxwood hedges and ornamental gardens at Villandry

We spent a few hours visiting the chateau and its lovely gardens. Although the chateau itself was very nicely kept and full of impressive works of art, the gardens stole the show. Villandry’s Renaissance gardens include a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, and vegetable gardens – all maintained to perfection. Visiting Villandry actually brought back memories from my childhood. I was born in England to an English mother and and American father. While living in England up until about first grade, my family would visit English gardens from time to time. I remember being fascinated by boxwood hedges. I loved the preciseness of their forms and how they could be used to create designs on a grand scale. I suppose this early attraction was an indication of my future love of art and design.

The gardens of Château de Villandry

Villandry was built toward 1536 and was the last of the large chateaus built in the Loire Valley during the Renaissance. Villandry’s builder, Jean le Breton, also oversaw the construction of Chambord. According to Wikipedia, The château remained in the Le Breton family for more than two centuries until it was acquired by the Marquis de Castellane. During the French Revolution the property was confiscated and in the early 19th century, Emperor Napoleon acquired it for his brother Joseph Bonaparte.

Château de Villandry's gardens

In 1906, Joachim Carvallo purchased the property, saved it from being demolished, and poured an enormous amount of time, money and devotion into repairing it and creating what many consider to be the most beautiful gardens anywhere. Today, Villandry is still owned by the Carvallo family. Like all the other châteaux of the Loire Valley, Villandry it is a World Heritage Site.

Vegetable gardens at Château de Villandry

The vegetable gardens were the epitome of form and function. Oh how I would love to be able to grow such a garden. We now live at 7300 feet here in Colorado so the growing season is relatively short. We have made a nice garden but it is more of a challenge to grow the type of variety that we witnessed at Villandry.

Flower gardens at Château de Villandry

The flower gardens were equally beautiful and more whimsical in their arrangement. Rose bushes could be found throughout the gardens as well. In the photo below, you can also see a grapevine-covered pathway along the left side of the canal. Awesome!

Villandry is complete with a water garden

The photo above provides a view of the canal, which leads up to the water garden above. As you can see, the site was not overrun with tourists in early September. This was typical for most of the chateaus we visited on our trip. As I have mentioned before, you can see several chateaus in a single day if you have your own car. They are all very easy to find with a Garmin and the driving experience is quite pleasant and rewarding. I highly recommended Villandry as an essential stop on your first trip to the Loire Valley. If you go, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

A beautiful staircase at Château de Villandry

Chinon, France on the Vienne River

I thought I would have a bit of fun with today’s images of Chinon, France by processing a few of them in a way that makes the town look miniature. These photographs were taken while Donna and I toured the Forteresse Royale du Chinon last September. The images overlooking the town are particularly well suited for miniature processing. Basically, if you have an image with a high point of view, like looking down on a model, you can apply a few processing techniques that fools the brain into thinking it is small. I will talk about that later in the post.

Chinon’s castle is perched up on a hill next to the Vienne river. There has been a castle on the site since the 10th century, when Theobald the Trickster, Count of Blois, built a tower there. In 1154, Henry II Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and King of England, set the fortress on a course to its present grandeur. The castle recently underwent several years of restoration work, which included a complete rebuild of the roof. The project, per the castle’s website, cost $14.5 million Euros, which is about $20 million US dollars. Portions of the chateau remain in ruin but that is part of the charm and serves to amplify its heritage and historical importance.

Château Chinon

Vienne and looks down on the old town of Chinon. I was fascinated by the visual impression of the town and the cluster of steeply pitched rooftops. In the photo below, you can see the glorious random arrangement rooftops attached to perfect little French houses. I am sure scenes like this have inspired animators for years since the view reminded me of something right out of a Disney movie. I really love the unspoiled look of this town from above. No satellite dishes or annoying remnants of modern day to be seen anywhere. A photographer’s dream!

Chinon's village as seen from Château Chinon

Above and below, you can see the difference that miniature post processing makes. Just click the images to see larger versions. If we fake the look of macro photography on a full scale image, the brain believes the objects in the image are small. This is an interesting exercise in fooling the brain by exploiting what it already knows. If you think about it, this can be a very powerful concept in painting as well. We are used to seeing small things photographed in a certain way so, when we process an image in that way, the brain interprets what it sees with that bias in mind. No pun intended!

Chinon village without miniature processing

I used a Photoshop plugin called OnOne FocalPoint to process the miniature effect seen in the images of the town. You can download a free trial if you want to give it a try on your own image. You can also achieve the same results manually in Photoshop but the FocalPoint interface makes it very easy to get the effect right out of the box.

Miniature post processing with OnOne FocalPoint 2.0

Basically, all you have to do is use the “Planar” version of the Focus Bug in the application to blur the foreground and background of the image. The amount of blur is adjustable. You can experiment with different settings to achieve maximum fakery. The processing mimics the the shallow depth of field of macro photography, which is used to photograph small objects. It is also a good idea to pump up the saturation of the final image a bit to make it like more like a model than real life. I did not go too far with these because I wanted to preserve some the natural details.

Château Chinon and the French countryside

Above, you can see where some of the castle still in ruin. You can also see the beautiful French countryside and the Vienne river. We could also see vineyards from the castle. Per Wikipedia, though typically thought of as lighter wines, reds from good producers and strong vintages can be full bodied and well structured for aging. Chinon inspired whites are composed primarily of Chenin Blanc and are typically described as dry, soft, light, and clean.

A vineyard as seen from the Chinon castle grounds

I have been buying French reds and whites since our trip and they are fabulous. I have heard and confirmed that 2009 was a very good year for French wine. I rely heavily on our local wine expert to help me pick good wine. It has been fun to pick up wines from the areas we visited on our trip to France.

Clustered rooftops as seen from Château Chinon

I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at Chinon in the Loire Valley. I also hope I am not trying to cover too much ground in these posts. As you may have guessed, I am passionate about travel, art and photography and want to drop something in these posts for everyone! Have a great Sunday!

Lee@ADNW

Four hours of diving bliss to the French Riviera

After spending three nights in the hilltop village of Roussillon in Provence, we hopped in the car and made our way to Nice on the French Riviera. I had to return the rental car by 5:30pm in Nice so we had to plan our trek carefully. Rental return hours can be unpredictable in Europe so it’s always a good idea to make sure you know how late the return counter is open.

Google maps indicated that it would take 4 hours and 8 minutes to get from Roussillon to Nice along our preferred route so we planned for seven, accounting for stops at Moustiers Sainte Marie, Castellane and other spots along the way. We left Roussillon at 9am so, if all went well, we would get to Nice at about 4pm.

Our first stop - Moustiers Sainte Marie

In addition to getting to Nice for the final leg of our trip, we wanted to experience the French countryside by car and see the Grand Canyon du Verdon, which is by many accounts considered to  be the Grand Canyon of Europe. From Roussillon, it took about two hours to get Moustiers Sainte Marie, which marked the beginning of our hour-long drive through the canyon. The two hour drive from Roussillon to Moustiers took us through a small towns as well as a handful of farms blanketed with enormous lavender fields. Unfortunately, we missed the blooming of the lavender this year but the tranquility of the open fields and mesmerizing rhythm of the fast passing  rows of plantings were beautiful and very relaxing indeed.

Moustiers (shown above) is a beautiful town, but as Rick Steves mentions in his book on Provence, it gets very crowded with tourists so it is better to visit as early as possible in the day. It was quite busy when we arrived so we only stopped for lunch before heading into the canyon. Oh, and a word to the wise. Make sure you have enough gas in the car before heading into the Parc du Verdon. There are no gas stations around and it would be a rather stressful situation to run out while driving through the park. The best plan is to stop in one of the more urban towns along the way to the park and fill up.

By the way, I love how everyone in France says “Bon Appétit” when you are eating. It happened several times while we were on our trip. When eating our mozzarella and tomato sandwiches in our car in Moustiers, a car full of older French ladies pulled up beside us. I looked over and a lady in the passenger seat smiled and exclaimed, “Bon Appétit!, through her window.” How can you not love that!

The stunning Lac Sainte Croix at the Parc du Verdon

Le Grand Canyon du Verdon, which lies about two hours north of Nice, is named for its incredibly gorgeous (no pun intended) turquoise-green river that runs though the canyon. In the photo above you can see the canyon’s lake, the Lac Sainte Croix. The lake is also shown on the driving map above about half way to Nice. Seeing the lake for the first time is an, “Oh wow,” experience that is one of the many highlights of the drive. the lake is enormous and, as you can see, relatively untouched by commercial activity. The intense green color of the water results from very fine particles of rock  suspended in the water, pulverized by glaciers above.

Driving throu Europe's Grand Canyon, the Parc du Verdon

The road through the canyon is is very good condition and not too scary to drive. The only unnerving spots are where you see a falling rock sign and then immediately see a few crumbs of rock actively rolling across the road. Yes, we did see that once along our drive. As you can garner from the photos, the scenery is breathtaking and we could not have asked for a better day weather wise do do it. We could have spent all day hiking in the canyon but we had to get to Nice. We did stop frequently though and take in the canyon’s stunning views and snap a few pictures.

Driving through the canyons at Parc du Verdon

According to Rick Steves’ book called Provence, the gorge drops 2,200 feet to the river at its deepest point. The canyon is as narrow at 26 feet wide at the bottom and spans as far as 4,600 feet across at the top. The variability of the French landscape is something to behold. I feel very fortunate to have been able to see such a broad brush of France’s beauty on a single trip!

Gorgeous views near the Parc du Verdon

As the canyon disappeared behind us, we began to see pristine meadows accompanied by dramatic mountainous backdrops. I initially drove right by the little church you see below and then said, “I have to go back!” I did a U turn and parked the car running with Donna in it on a little side street. Yep, a one lane side street. Fortunately, there weren’t many folks around, so I had time to run across the field and capture a shot of the this beautiful lone church in the hill.

A lone church as we exited the Parc du Verdon

Castellane, shown below, was the “official” end to our breathtaking ride through the Canyon du Verdon. I stopped long enough in Castellane to take this photo from a bridge leading into town. We needed to get moving in order to get to Nice on time. The rest of the drive was relatively uneventful until we got to Grasse. Grasse may be the capital of perfume but driving in town stinks. We just happened to be there during rush hour. After a few go arounds on the roundabouts we made it out of the city alive and made our way to Nice. Nice is Nice and that will be the subject of my next post!

On to Nice after a quick stop in Castellane, France

A rather artistic garage door in Roussillon, France

While Donna and I were staying in the the popular hilltop village of Roussillon in the south of France, we took a stroll down the back streets to look for interesting windows and doors to photograph. Ahhh, it would be hard to invent such textures and finishes! The surfaces were worn, discolored, and cracked…and they were gorgeous. I am not sure who owned the garage door in the photo above but it was captivating. I will just assume that it belongs to an interesting person!

I tried taking a shot of the door in sunlight but I did not like it as well. All I really wanted was to capture the subtleties of the surfaces and and the harsh sunlight seemed to distract from that goal. Remember to go back and shoot something more than once. Your subject may look better at different times of the day. This is why I like to stay put in certain places for a few days. It gives me an opportunity to get to know an area well and how the light works. While in Venice a couple of years ago, I would return to a favorite spot up to five times to try and get the shot and light I wanted.

Classic blue shutters in Provence

These blue shutters were everywhere in Provence and they harmonized extremely well with the stone and masonry surfaces of the buildings they adorned. Yes please, I will take the cracked paint just the way you see it here. The shutters truly belong on that building with its array of beautiful imperfections.

A friend we found along the way

We saw quite a few cats laying around on our walk and I could not resist snapping a picture of this one taking a break on a nice stone bench. The weather was close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit that day and I bet the bench took a bit of the edge off of the nice summer day.

More interesting doors in Roussillon, France

The scene above is one I liked in the harsh sunlight. This elements looked distinctly Provencal to me with the arched openings, flags and flower covered balcony. The homes and shops in Roussillon are brightly colored for a good reason. The structures of Roussillon feature various shades of ochre found naturally in the surrounding rock. Below is a shot of the an ochre cliff, which was just outside our hotel. Yep, that’s the ochre that makes pigments for paint. Isn’t the color stunning?

The famous ochre cliffs of Roussillon

Roussillon is famous for the rich deposits of ochre pigments found in the clay near the village. The large quarries of Roussillon were mined from the end of the eighteenth century until 1930. Thousands of people found work in the quarries and factories. Nowadays the mining of ochre is prohibited here, in order to protect the sites from degradation or even complete destruction. (Source: Wikipedia)

I can't remember where I found this door in France

And finally, couple more doors that were rich with details, texture and style. Feel free to paint any of these scenes if you like. All I ask is that you please post a link back to adaynotwasted.com if you post your work on the web. Thanks!

Perfectly aged entrance in Roussillon, France

]]> http://adaynotwasted.com/2011/10/the-doors-and-windows-of-roussillon/feed/ 13 http://adaynotwasted.com/2011/10/chateau-damboise-on-the-river-loire/ http://adaynotwasted.com/2011/10/chateau-damboise-on-the-river-loire/#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:20:44 +0000 Lee http://adaynotwasted.com/?p=5220

Château d'Amboise reflection in the River Loire

Today’s photo series is from Amboise, France in the heart if the Loire Valley. We picked Amboise as our home base for exploring the chateaus of the Loire for a couple of reasons. For one, it was close to Trip Advisor’s top rated accommodation – the Chateau des Ormeaux Amboise. And two, it was a close and convenient place to grab a bite or anything else we needed while staying in the area. What’s more, Amboise has its very own chateau! The map below shows all of the chateaus we visited while in the Loire Valley, as well as the place we stayed and its proximity to Amboise. The drive from our chateau to Amboise was about ten minutes. The drive to Chambord in the upper right was an easy 55 minutes in the car. As you can gather, even though the distances look far on the map, they really aren’t. Just plan your days around chateaus either east or west of the city of Tours and you are good to go!

Map of the chateaus we visited

Below is a shot of the Loire river taken fron the bridge leading to Amboise and the chateau. It is a lazy and peaceful river that meanders through the valley. There seemed to be a river on the left or right of everywhere we drove. The landscape is quite beautiful in the area and very serene. Imagine tiny roads, without much traffic, cutting between farms with an occasional chicken or rooster crossing the road.

Look to the upper left of the photo below and you will see a small boat by the river’s bank. The sunset photo just below is of the same boat. Since we were in Amboise several time during our stay, I was able to plan a post dinner shot of the boat just as the sun was setting on the river.

Late afternoon on the River Loire

The timing worked out well for the shot but it was close. When the sun is this low on the horizon it goes down very fast. A difference of 30 seconds can make or break the photo. I used a graduated neutral density filter on this photo to reduce the brightness of the sky but not the water. If I hadn’t, the camera would have exposed for the bright sky and the water would have come out very dark. The filter helps balance the lighting in the photo so the camera can capture all the light values in the scene. I will cover the use of these filters someday in another post.

As the sun sets on the River Loire

Below is a photo of a typical street in Amboise. The city is relatively small with a population of only 13,000 people. Donna and I had a wonderful dinner there, which was at a place recommended in Rick Steves’ iBook on the Loire Valley.

A typical street in Amboise, France

Château d’Amboise was added to over the centuries. One of the additions included the Chapel Saint-Hubert, which was built in the 1490′s. The photo below is of the interior of the chapel. The tomb of Leonardo daVinci, who died in Amboise on May 2, 1519 at age 67, is just to the left of where I took this photo.

The chapel interior at Château d'Amboise

Chapel detail at the Château d'Amboise

The exterior of Château d'Amboise

As always, thanks for visiting and I hope you have enjoyed this series on Amboise. I love hearing from you and if you have any questions about travel to these areas, just drop me a line and I will do what I can to help. I am getting ready to book flights to Scotland for next year. I need to start researching for that trip, which is always part of the fun!

Château de Cheverny

As I mentioned in my prior post about the Château de Chambord, each château in the Loire Valley has its own style and sense of purpose. While Chambord amazed with its size and architectural prowess, Château de Cheverny pleases with its lavishly appointed and meticulously maintained interiors. Not that the château itself is anything to sneeze at mind you. The hunting palace was was built and decorated from 1604 to 1634 and, from its very beginning, the château has always been in the Hurrault family. Don’t be surprised to see family photos in the château because the family still lives on the third floor!

I had to shoot this château in marginal conditions. As you can see, the sun was directly overhead, which made the shadows very short and the light harsh. It is always dilemma trying to shoot for my photography business while on vacation. Although Donna is very patient with me as I shoot everything under the sun, I like to sensitive to her and the purpose of the trip. This means sometimes I have to take what I can get. In this case I knew the light would be pretty flat on château so I looked for other ways to liven up the picture. The gardens out back were perfect, as they added visual interest to the scene and lead the eye to the château as the primary subject. Since the château was in shadow, I pushed the exposure compensation up one stop and shot an extra handheld photo in place to make sure I had good, well exposed, detail of the châteaus exterior. Once home, I aligned the two shots in Photoshop and used a layer mask to bring in the brighter exposure of the château exterior. It’s not cheating, just practical when the camera is not able to get all the necessary detail in a single exposure.

The village just outside Château de Cheverny

The Château de Cheverny comes complete with a quaint village that is not overdone with tourist kitsch. Every château has a convenient parking area withing walking distance to the main attraction. Remember not to leave anything of value viable in your car. There are plenty of warnings about potential break-ins but we had no issues and we parked at a lot of locations. Just use common sense and you will do fine. Driving to each of the châteaus is very pleasant. With the help of our Garmin, we found everything with ease and enjoyed the picturesque French countryside along the way.

The stunning interior at Château de Cheverny

The photo above give you an idea of the quality of the interior of the château. From the private apartments to the stunning dining room with its decorated ceilings, the château is a remarkable window into the past.

The main entrance at Château de Cheverny

If you click the picture above to see the detail, you will notice the row of Roman emperors between the windows. Julius Caesar is in the center above all the rest. You can see the exterior is in remarkably good condition and is surrounded by nicely manicured grounds. The Mona Lisa as well as other treasures of the Louvre were hidden safely here during World War II. Oh, and the château was conveniently spared during the French Revolution too!

Interior column decoration at Château de Cheverny

I hope you have enjoyed this sneak peek into the Château de Cheverny. I have a few more châteaus to cover including Amboise, Villandry, Chinon and Azay le Rideau. I post them as I have time to work on the photos!

Château de Chambord

Château de Chambord, one of the most recognizable châteaus in the world, was one of eight that Donna and I visited during our three-day stay in France’s Loire Valley. All the châteaus were worth visiting and each had its own charm and sense of purpose. If you have a rental car, you can easily do three châteaus in a single day. Our home base was in the heart of the Loire Valley near Amboise, France. In fact, we stayed in a manor house next to a nice 12-room château about 10-minutes away from the old city center of Amboise. Below is an early morning picture of our manor house at the Chateau des Ormeaux. Imagine waking up to chirping birds as the sun rises over a lush misty forest complete with hot air balloons climbing on the distant horizon. Pretty awesome!

Our manor house at the Chateau des Ormeaux

When I approached the château de Chambord, my jaw hit the ground. Words cannot accurately convey the enormity of the structure. The château features 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces, and 84 staircases. Although its exterior appears to be a mirror image from left to right, many differences can be found upon close inspection.

The incredible roofline of Chambord

According to Wikipedia, The roofscape of Chambord contrasts with the masses of its masonry and has often been compared with the skyline of a town: it shows eleven kinds of towers and three types of chimneys, without symmetry, framed at the corners by the massive towers. One of the architectural highlights is the spectacular double-helix open staircase that is the centerpiece of the château. The two helixes ascend the three floors without ever meeting, illuminated from above by a sort of light house at the highest point of the château.

The staircase at Chambord

The grounds surrounding the château de Chambord are equally immense. Again, from Wikipedia, The château is surrounded by a 52.5‑km² (13,000‑acre) wooded park and game reserve maintained with red deer, enclosed by a 31‑kilometer (20‑mile) wall. The king’s plan to divert the Loire to surround the château came about only in a novel; Amadis of Gaul.

Château de Chambord black and white conversion with Nik Silver EFX

While taking these photos during the middle of the afternoon, I was blessed with big puffy clouds. Clouds like this are always a welcome sight as they create visual interest and add texture to the photograph. I like this photo in black and white as well. The variety in values and general massing of the scene’s elements allow the black and white conversion to work well. What do you think?

The Prince's Palace of Monaco

The last leg of our trip to France took us to the French Riviera. Although we stayed in Nice, we took took a local bus to Monaco for a day. Getting to Monaco, and all the other towns on the French Riviera for that mater, is really easy. From Nice, we walked early to the bus station to catch a 9am bus, paid one Euro each, and took a 45-minute ride to Monaco. The bus stops at the other towns along the way and can be quite full. Just plan ahead, go early, and most of all, enjoy!

Each town along the Riviera has its own flair and Monaco is worth the stop. From the impressive Prince’s Palace to the stunning ocean views from atop the city, you will be astonished by the density and beauty all wrapped up in one place. To be honest, it kind of reminded me of Hong Kong. A The buildings are stacked like legos all the way up the hill and cars buzz up and down the streets with great intention.

To capture the essence of what I saw, I felt a high resolution panorama was in order. The photo below was taken as Donna and I walked up to the Prince’s Palace. As you can see the area is filled with buildings, hilltop vistas, a Palace, and a place to park your multimillion dollar yacht.

Click on the photo below to see a mere fraction of the total resolution of the panorama. The full image is about 25 feet wide, over 650 megabytes, and contains more than 109 million pixels! How did I do that? Well, I flipped the camera into a portrait position (tall orientation) and rotated with a 50% viewfinder overlap as I took a total of 11 images from left to right. The goal is to stay as level as possible as I rotate and snap the pictures. A reasonably fast shutter speed is important to eliminate camera shake as the images are taken. The shots for this panorama were taken at zoom level of 50mm (minimizes distortion), 1/320th of a second (eliminates camera shake), and an aperture of f/9.0 (keeps things near and far in focus).

View of Monaco while walking up to the Prince's Palace

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The trick to pulling off a nice handheld pano is to plan ahead. Using my Canon 5D Mark II, which is a 21.1 million pixel camera, I first set the white balance to daylight. If left on auto white balance, the camera may shift the color temperature of the individual images as I pan across the sky, making it very difficult to get a consistent color temperature from left to right once the full image is stitched together.

Another thing that is critical is picking an exposure that will work across all the images. This is where the camera’s manual settings come in handy. Basically, I had to meter the entire scene with the camera’s built-in light meter and pick an aperture and shutter setting that would give a good exposure for the entire scene. As you can see in the photo, the sky is darker on the left and the landscape is darker on the right. I needed an exposure that would expose the buildings properly on the left without blowing out the sky on the right. A little tricky but once you get the hang of it you will have no problem dialing in acceptable settings. Be sure to check your histograms to make sure you have good exposures after you shoot. If not, adjust your aperture up or down and try again!

The $200M Lady Moura next to a cruise ship

This is where it gets fun. The photos above and below demonstrate how much resolution there is in the panorama. They are clips from the full resolution panorama showing the private superyacht, Lady Moura. In the full pano, the yacht is next to the cruise ship toward the right side of the panorama. As of 2011, Lady Moura is the 24th largest yacht in to world and is owned by by Saudi Arabian businessman, Nasser Al-Rashid. The yacht, which was the 9th largest when it was launched in 1990, cost a reported $200 million to build. The escutcheon seen on the rear of the yacht is carved in 24-carat gold and the yacht is tendered by an on-board helicopter. You can see the landing pad in the photo below with a yellow circle on it. He must be out grabbing a gallon of milk at the local convenience store.

Lady Moura at full resolution from large pano

The photo below shows the building density in Monaco as well as how the buildings look at full resolution. It is quite fun to explore these high resolution images after I get back from trips!

Monaco: Densly populated but beautiful

So, how do I stitch them together? Well, I use the photo merge feature in Photoshop. There are other tools you can use to accomplish quality photo stitching results but I use Photoshop because I own it. A word of warning. You need a pretty high powered computer to stitch images this large. I use a Mac Pro Quad-Core with 20 gigabytes of RAM. That may be overkill but the system has no problem putting the images together in a reasonable amount of time. Nice!

Another Monaco pano showing the Prince's Palace of Monaco

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The panorama directly above was taken from the Jardin Exotique de Monaco. It is a botanical garden located on a cliff side in Monaco. Donna and I walked all the way to the top of the city to get there, which was exhausting. We could have taken the bus but we were sure it was “just around the corner” for about an hour. The views from the garden are breathtaking and it was worth the exercise. As you can see. the location provided a nice view of the palace and surrounding area. Below is a full res clip of the palace. Pretty amazing, huh!

Prince's Palace at full resolution

Finally, below was a series of houses we saw on our way up to the garden. We were sitting on a bench taking a break when I noticed the fanciful decoration on them. Each was unique and meticulously restored. For this image I had to zoom out a bit and take five pictures to get all of the subject matter. The wide zoom is what has created the distortion in the image. I think it makes for an interesting image and provides a pretty good record of what I saw.

Monaco homes showing stunning individuality

Thanks for enduring this long post. I hope you find it helpful when thinking about taking panrama images for your portfolio. They can be quite rewarding and I highly recommend you give them a try sometime.

Have a great weekend,
Lee@ADNW

Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms d'Avignon

Today’s feature photo is of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms d’Avignon, or Avignon Cathedral. The interior of the cathedral that you see above is the tallest structure you see in the photo below. The one with the gold statue on top. I was taken by the ornate decoration on the balcony and the light reflecting in the dome. I love bringing these photos back home to explore. It is impossible to memorize every detail during a brief visit. But with the advancements in digital photography, and the high resolution that has come with them, I can explore the photograph like a treasure map to my heart’s content. These photos require multiple long exposures due to the low level of ambient light in the space and the extremes between dark and light created by the windows.

The Avignon Cathedral is part of the Palais des Papes. Avignon was the home of the popes in 1309 when they fled the violent chaos of Rome. The Palais was built between 1335 and 1364 on a natural rocky outcrop at the northern edge of Avignon, overlooking the river Rhône. Donna and I toured the enormous structure during our two-night stay in the old city. One of the nights, we had dinner on the square facing the Palais. The night air was comfortably warm and ambiance could not be beat with the tastefully lit Palais before us and the tinkling of dishes among vibrant conversation emanating from the tables around us.

Pont Saint-Bénezet leading to Avignon, France at Sunset

We stayed in the city center at a lovely hotel called Hotel d’Europe. The picture of the hotel below is somewhat deceiving. The 16th century residence is much larger than it appears, complete with a quaint courtyard and 41 nicely appointed rooms among connected buildings. Over the course of the 19th century, various personalities have stayed here—Queen Astrid of Spain in 1832, Victor Hugo in 1839, as well as Charles Dickens. Our biggest feat was to try and figure our what to do with our car. Believe it or not, this is a street that sees a fair amount of traffic. In classic Provencal style, I parked on the sidewalk giving at least two inches for the other cars to get by. Once we checked-in, a nice valet whisked the car away to a parking garage about two blocks away.

The Hotel d'Europe in old Avignon, France

Avignon is vibrant, not only due the level of tourism but also due to the local university. There are an endless supply of shops to explore and restaurants to try. Our food recommendations came from the front desk at the hotel, which were very good. We try to eat at less touristy places when possible and generally turn a blind eye to expense. I have learned to not sweat the budget while traveling in Europe. We just save up before and go and have a good time. It’s funny because it seems that, given our traveling style, a week in Europe runs about $3500 excluding air. We always get air for free with my frequent flyer miles. You can obviously get by on less but, for us, this has become a pretty good rule of thumb.

Herbs de provence at a shop in Avignon, France

I think Avignon is a great stop during an adventure in Provence. In my view, two full days is enough. After that, do like we did and make your way to a quiet hilltop village for a few days. Everything you will want to see is pretty close to each other, which makes it easy to stay in a couple of places over a five-day period.

I will end this post with a reminder that some of the buildings in Europe are very old. I am sure you all knew that already but nothing makes it more real than walking around a corner in Avignon to find a refined German road car crushed by a building overhang. I am sure everything will look as good as new after a quick call to their insurance agent!

An Audi crushed by a fallen building overhang in Avignon, France

A new day dawns over Gordes, France

When viewing my photographs, some people say, “Were the colors really that bright?” That is a legitimate question, right? I believe that the eye needs to be trained to see color in the natural landscape. How many times have you been mesmerized by the presence of a landscape and did not stop to ask yourself why? The brain takes in what we see, and our past experiences, desires and personal preferences inspire an emotional response. My response is likely to be different that yours. I suppose that displaying this photography is my attempt to evoke a similar response in someone else while accepting that it may be motivated by something completely different. Whew! I hope this makes sense to someone!

I can say with firm conviction that through the process of learning to paint and take photographs, my eye, or brain that is, has become much more sensitive to color. It was almost like a light switch went on for me. So, when I shoot and process a photograph, I attempt to recreate an impression. Specifically, the impression I experienced when I was there and all the color and detail that comes with it.

As I stood atop a large rock overlooking the village of Gordes, the sun set the Provencal landscape ablaze with color as the new day dawned over Gordes, France. It is no surprise the impressionists were called to Provence to create some of the world’s most recognizable works.

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) spent his youth near this place in Aix-en-Provence. There are few painters that dealt so fully with the landscape and the people of the area. He conducted a symphony of landscape elements in his works that were inspired by the hills and mountains of Provence and how their forms shimmered and came alive with color in the sun.

This photograph is my impression of that calm and quite morning as the sun bathed the Provencal landscape. The colors the sun is able to amplify in the landscape of Provence is truly special. I witnessed the effect on a number of occasions during the week Donna and I visited the area. I have tried to bring a piece of that experience back for you. Nothing will replace the glory of experiencing it first hand but I feel this image attempts to transport you this time and place. This was my impression. Enjoy!