Exploring LanguedocMonday Sept 30th After finishing the morning session photographing the horses in the marshes we headed west up the coast. We would return to the Camargue at the end of the week for the bull festival at Aigues-Mortes. For now our first destination was the seaside town of Sete. Our daughter Erin had spent three weeks here as an exchange student and enjoyed it so much she's been after us for years to get there. Three canals converge at the town so it bills itself as the Venice of France. It is certainly charming, and it is certainly easier to get around by boat than by car, but Venice? Ummmm... I'm afraid not. We walked around for a few hours, had a glass of wine beside the canal, and soaked up the atmosphere.
You can see that the overcast sky of the morning had broken up and we would have loved to wait for sunset but our B&B was in a medieval hilltop town, Olargues, and we wanted to get there before dark. This would be a trip back in time. The town, as we see it today, was pretty much built by the end of the 1200s, One could in theory, drive in the town, and we did so to unload the luggage, but it was better to walk, or should I say climb, around the town than try to drive, much less park.
Tuesday October 1st. Olargues would be our base for the rest of the week. We had some villages, some castles, and a couple of larger towns to check out. They were all within an hour or so of home. The sky that day had a high thin overcast all day which softened the light for photography. No harsh shadows. So off we went. First place was the village of Roquebrun.
I guess I can't help myself when I see reflections. Then it was just a short drive over to Minerve, a town built on the edge of a gorge. No reflections here!
This gravel road/river bed actually had a name so Gladys thought it was okay to take us there. It was a little unnerving. But it turned out fine. Besides, it was a rental car. We had a nice lunch of steak frites on top of the cliff.
Back to Olargues for supper.
White Horses in the MarshesMonday Sept 30th Cecille would take us on two more photo sessions, both in the marshes. The first was the morning of Sept 30th, the second was on Friday Oct 4th, but I will report on both now. The weather was completely different for the two sessions which gave us two very different kinds of images. The first session was fully overcast and a little misty, and the light was very flat. Pretty good grist for black and white but I'll keep these in color. We'll do some B&W in the last post for the trip.
The flat skies and calm winds gave us the opportunity to get some get some reflection shots.
But horses running through the marsh is we really wanted.
To finish off the session we tried a little Phancy Photography. Using a relatively slow shutter speed we tracked the rider as he rode across the field of view. This left everything but the horse and rider blurry. Fun.
I've learned from photographing the white horses in Missouri the potential of backlighting. This was a terrific opportunity.
Once more, boys, into the water!
What a day!! White Horses at the BeachSunday Sept 29th Beaches are one of the great locations for photographing horses, especially ones who are a little bit wild. There's something about a running horse, unrestrained by fences or boundaries, that just says "Freedom!". So I've been looking forward to this session for a long time. I hope you will agree that it was successful. But honesty requires me to give most of the credit to Cecile and the weather gods, in that order. I'm sure I could have gotten something out of this session without her. But gorging myself as I did would not have happened without her as a guide. First we worked on getting reflections with the gorgeous sky.
Then, of course, we had to do the "running through the surf" shots.
What can I say? With these conditions how could I miss?
White Horses: Stallions
Sunday Sept 29th The day started with a session photographing a couple of young stallions. They were put on a strip of land between two pools of water so they just ran back and forth. The light was gorgeous.
I know from my experience photographing the wild horses in Missouri that any time you get a couple of young stallions together they will immediately start horsing around. Hee hee. Pretty good, eh? So these two lived up to expectations. They had fun and so did we.
We then drove over to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer where they were having their bull festival. Each town has its own traditions involving bulls and horses. This day started with a fairly grand parade of mostly the locals in their finery, riding or driving white horses.
When the parade was over we got a demonstration of agility by some of the younger riders. It looked a lot like barrel racing only with highway cones.
Then Cecile rounded us up and we walked to the edge of town to see the gardians bring in the bulls. The tradition in this town is for a phalanx of riders with the bulls inside ride through the streets. The picture below shows them heading into town.
About 30 minutes later they all came back. The picture below shows the bulls in the phalanx.
Back to Patrick's for lunch. White Horses Mares & FoalsSaturday Sept 28th
After lunch we were back out with Cecile for another photo session. The way the rest of these would work is that we would meet the gardians in the marshes and they would round up or bring with them the horses for the session. This afternoon it was mares and foals. We were constantly trying to position ourselves to get the light and backgrounds we wanted. The horses were sometimes very cooperative, sometimes not. We did manage to get something.
Here they come. Ready to go to work.
We were hoping to get them in the water but the mares were reluctant to take the foals in until they had checked it out. Then they seemed to like it.
Then back to Patrick's for dinner. Patrick is the proprietor of La Table à Rallonge Inn, just a very short walk from our B&B in St. Laurent. Cecile had indicated her hope that we would take our meals there, Jeanne Marie included, with the rest of the group. But we were left with some unanswered questions beginning with his name. Unusual name for a Frenchman, nest pas? Is this some Irish expat who prefers the weather in the south of France? If so we did not come to France to eat Irish cooking. The Irish are trying but they have not caught up with the French in cuisine. And we were hesitant to commit to having all of our meals at a place we'd never tried. Well, our concerns were completely unfounded. Patrick is French and provides the best example of French country cooking one is likely to find anywhere. It was sooooo good! Just another delightful serendipity for this trip.
Early to bed. More shooting in the morning.
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