Tour Plan
We meet you at Marseille airport in the first half of the day. If you arrive a day earlier and stay overnight in beautiful Marseille, we can recommend you some of the best walking routes, sights and museums to visit. We will pick you up at the hotel in the morning if you arrive a day before and go to the airport to meet other participants. Once everyone has met and is sat in the car, we will go to Camargue reserve, which will be our base for the first 3 nights of our photography tour. After settling down, having lunch and resting, we will visit the bird park, where we will stay until after closing to photograph the flocks of beautiful flamingos, as well as other birds from the South of France during “the golden hours”.
On this day we will explore the ancient city of Arles. We will visit the ancient temple of St. Trofim, snow-white ancient amphitheater, and the Van Gogh Museum. Then we walk through the old deserted warm streets and have lunch in a beautiful oyster bar where we will enjoy fresh seafood with famous Provencal Rose. Local gastronomy is a very important part of our photo tours, which allows you to explore the country and feel its spirit.
In the evening, expect one of the most exciting highlights of our photography tour; Camargue white horses running in the sea in the rays of the sunset sun. We will do about 15 photo-sessions in 4 different locations and light conditions. A professional team of horse-riders will be helping us with this task. It is important for you to have comfortable clothes that allow you to lie on the ground and go into the sea. You will need lenses of up to 400mm or bigger.
On the third day of our photography workshop we will enjoy a morning walk in a lovely sun-drenched town of Saint-Maries de la Mer where you will have plenty of opportunities to practice your street photography. We will also have time to enjoy a swim in the Mediterranean Sea which is warm and most comfortable at this time of the year. Then we will organize a horse ride around Camargue, have lunch, and rest. In the evening we continue our main entertainment – photographing snow-white magnificent Camargue beasts, this time in completely different locations and light conditions. We will also try to organize an exciting show – a fight of young stallions. The Camargue part of the photo tour will end on this night.
We will move to Valensol plateau, the lavender universe! On our way, we will visit Avignon, a historic city famous for captivity of popes, and enjoy the majestic Pope’s Palace. We will also take a walk through the ancient streets of town including legendary Pont D’avignon, famously sung in songs. We will check in at our second and final place. At sunset we will photograph the lavender fields.
We will spend sunrise and sunset in the lavender fields. We recommend women to take dresses, because our photo guide will take a series of beautiful portraits for you in this vast lavender sea and we will give you up to 10 retouched photos. In Provencal towns there are beautiful fairs of local farmers and craftsmen; we will certainly visit some of them. The most famous are held in the towns of Apt and Lourmarin.
On the sixth day of our photography workshop we will organize a hot air balloon flight over the fields of Valensol to meet the sunrise. At some moment experienced aeronauts will bring the balloon so low to the fields that the basket will almost touch the flowers. It will be a very special experience, the memories of which you will cherish in time. The journey ends with a picnic with a glass of wine and gourmet local cheese.
After the picnic, we will go on a sightseeing tour to the Verdon Canyon, the deepest in Europe (up to 800m). We will climb the serpentine of the old route de Cretes to the level of clouds and, if we are lucky, we will see big eagles soaring beneath us. It will be an unforgettable visual experience. At sunset, we will continue shooting endless lavender fields. We know all the best and famous locations of Valensol and will gladly take you to them.
On your final day of the photography tour we will photograph the sunrise if the weather allows and then go to Marseille. We recommend you buy return tickets for an afternoon flight. We can take you to the airport or to the city if you want to spend time there.
Food
We will eat in restaurants, but if you want to try the exquisite risotto with seafood, tartare with salmon and avocado, pickled tuna in Venetian style from our photo guide or a big oyster party, we will be happy to organize all this for you. Food and alcohol costs are not included in the price of our photography tour and are divided by the number of participants.
Clothes
It is very hot in Provence in this time of the year, the temperature goes often above 30C, so during the day time we will do lots of swimming in pools (or the sea), please, take swimming suits/trunks and flipflops or crocs. In the mornings and on the hot air balloon it can be a bit cool, we recommend taking a fleece top or a jumper. As for the shoes, our choice is sneakers or any other comfortable sporty shoes. And dear ladies, please, take a couple of long dresses for a beautiful photo session in the lavender fields, the best colors would be white and yellow.