DATES: July 7 - July 17, 2010 (10 nights). LED BY: Barbara van Zanten
PRICE: 2,650 euros* per person double occupancy, 2,900* euros single occupancy (your payment is made in dollars)
LED BY: Barbara van Zanten MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 6
PRICE INCLUDES: 9 nights accommodation in a three star hotel and a luxury bed and breakfast, 1 night accommodation at the Best Western hotel at Marseille airport, breakfast each day, all ground transportation from Marseille airport, 2 evening meals, services of tour leader/driver.
NOT INCLUDED: Air fare to Marseille, meals other than mentioned above, personal expenses, obligatory travel insurance.
PHYSICAL LEVEL: Fairly strenuous. Some steep streets in the hill towns, hot weather.
ARRIVAL: Marseille airport. Please arrange your flights to be at Marseille airport on the morning of July 7, 2010. We recommend arriving in France a day or two early to get over jet-lag.
DEPARTURE: Any time on July 17, 2009. Last night spent in Best Western Hotel at Marseille airport.

*Why is the price quoted in euros? How much is that in dollars? Prices are quoted in euros to keep the costs down. The currency exchange rate for euros to dollars varies between 1.40 and 1.60. Multiply the euro prices by these two numbers to get an approximate dollar price range. I will quote your price in dollars upon receiving your booking. The final price may differ depending on the rate of exchange at the time payments are sent to France. For more information click here

tour to Provence
Once again, in 2008 during my research trip my friend and photo buddy, Provence-based photographer Julien Lautier kindly shared with me his new secret corners of Provence. Julien's photography can be seen as postcards in just about every gift shop and grocery in Provence, and he has had several books of photography published. He spends his days driving around Provence taking photos...an ideal life I think.

For 2010 we are planning the photo tour to Provence to coincide with the blooming of the lavender fields. I also want to include the celebrations of July 14...Bastille Day. In every town and village there is an outdoor "Bal Populaire" on the evening of July 14. Locals and tourists alike are invited to share the evening celebrations that go on in to the small hours of the morning with live music and dancing in the streets. For details of the photo tour to Provence 2010, called "Another Summer in Provence" click here. For some of Julien's photos of Provence click here. Client photos from the 2008 tour to Provence will also be posted soon. Click here for photos of the group during the Summer in Provence 2008 photo tour. Click here for some of Barbara's images from the 2008 photo tour to Provence.

Provence is truly an irresistible region, we cannot get enough of it! Following our very enjoyable tour of the Luberon in June and July 2008 we have decided to return for another dose of sunshine, flowers and lavender fields. Building on that tour we will be re-visiting some very photogenic places and adding different ones. Provence is a very big region stretching from Arles in the west to St. Tropez and the Riviera in the east, too big for any one tour to cover in ten days without spending hours driving. For this our fifth tour to Provence we will be visiting three regions of Provence that have made it famous: the Luberon valley, and the lavender producing regions of Haute Provence and the Plateau of Valensole.

Provence is one of the most famous regions of Europe and it is famous for a reason. Visually it is stunning with dramatic landscapes, valleys full of flowers, lavender and wheat fields, hills and mountains covered in wild thyme and Mediterranean wild flowers. The landscapes are sprinkled with picture-book villages, some down in the valleys and some perched high on steep hilltops. In summer these villages come to life with window boxes and pots bursting with flowers and vines, fountains burbling, and cafes full of people living the good life.

For the first half of our tour we will be staying at le Mas Jorel, a luxury bed and breakfast villa near the village of Roussillon in the Luberon Valley, where we stayed in June 2008. Made famous by Peter Mayle’s book, “A Year In Provence”, and the movie, "A Good Year" the Luberon Valley has many beautiful villages clustered in a relatively small space. Several of these villages, such as Menerbes, Gordes, Lourmarin and Roussillon find themselves mentioned in every guide book and have become too famous for their own good. However they are very photogenic and are each classified as "One of the Most Beautiful Villages of France". Other famous Luberon villages that we will explore are Bonnieux, Lacoste and Oppede le Vieux as well as the Abbey de Senanque. In spite of their fame they retain an authenticity and charm that is undeniable. At around 10 a.m. bus loads of tourists arrive to crowd the streets and shops, but this is the time we leave as we will have gotten there long before.

We get up at dawn and visit the villages early. That way we meet the locals walking down to the cafe for their newspaper and morning cup of coffee. The cafe owners have time to chat and joke with us and we get to shoot the village streets before they get busy. At 10 a.m. we return for breakfast and a rest from the already hot sun and perhaps a dip in the swimming pool. During the day I may set up a still life or two with flowers, fruit and props we have bought at the local markets. On other days we can go into the villages and enjoy the people, the festivals, and join in the summertime fun. In the late afternoon and evening as the air cools we explore the region again, shoot landscapes and capture the long rays of evening lighting up the glories of Provence. Once the light goes we will pick a village, hang out on the cafe terrace and sample the sensory joys of this alluring region.

As well as visiting the popular places we will also visit villages that are way off the beaten track and not mentioned in any guide book. I have scoured nearly every back road and highway in Provence, walked every village street, asked local villagers their opinions, and above all followed the advice of my friend, Provence based photographer Julien Lautier. I have found places that have no tourists or very few, but that are every bit as gorgeous as the most famous villages, if not more so. I have found cafes where in June 2008, all we wanted to do was hang out, drink a glass of Pastis and chat to the friendly locals. These places are on my list of "Secret Corners of Provence". Because of the effort and expense put into researching them I will share them with you when you come on tour, but with no-one else. That way I can guarantee exclusive images for my group.

At the beginning of July the weather can be hot, too hot to move about during the middle hours of the day. The cicadas chirp and grate their way through long sultry afternoons, the air shimmers and vibrates. But the morning sunrises are marvelous and the light at the end of the day glows mellow in shades of yellow, gold, orange and red. The quality of the light in Provence is special and has attracted many artists and photographers from Cezanne and van Gogh to Matisse and Picasso, from Lartigue to Cartier-Bresson to Julien Lautier. Much may have changed in Provence since van Gogh's time but the quality of the light has remained the same.

The reason for going to Provence in the hot summer months is of course for the lavender which only blooms between the end of June and the middle of August. Provence is famous for its fields of lavender. Who has not seen photos of long waving rows of soft fuzzy purple lavender rippling up and over the hills under a bright blue sky? Who can blame us for wanting to visually interpret these fields in our own way?

For the second half of our tour we will be based in a three-star hotel east of the Luberon valley and in the middle of the major lavender producing areas.From our hotel each day we will drive north to the foothills of rugged Ventoux mountain range, and the lavender fields of le Pays de Sault, or east to the Valensole Plateau, a region given over entirely to the cultivation of lavender. The Ventoux mountains although not high by Alpine standards, are difficult to access and the villages are reached by small mountain roads that twist and turn through spectacular scenery. For centuries the Pays de Sault and the Valensole Plateau were isolated and poor, and modern development non-existent. Lavender production along with tourism has brought a new prosperity without spoiling the extremely photogenic nature of the landscapes and villages. The Pays de Sault is one of the centers of the lavender industry and one of Julien Lautier's all-time favorite regions for photography. The villages, cut off for centuries from much outside contact, are quiet, tranquil oases, some with steep cobbled lanes, stone-built tumbledown castles overgrown with roses, the odd shop here and there and spectacular views from the village walls. They are mostly dedicated to the production of lavender and come alive during the summer with lavender shops, lavender festivals, lavender ice cream, lavender colored houses, lavender colored shutters…… Some of these hill villages have steep streets and climbing them in the heat of a Provencal summer is not for the feint hearted. There are plenty of shaded cafes however for all of us to sit in when we need a rest…

Each time we visit, with the help of my friend, Provence-based photographer Julien Lautier I find the best lavender fields and landscapes. Julien spends his life traveling throughout Provence shooting images for magazines, books and postcards and his work can be seen in practically every shop in southern France. I met him before our tour of Provence in 2002 and not only did he share his secret places with me but he marked every location on a map so that I would be able to find them again. I will be spending some time with him before this tour too, hunting out the last secret corners of Provence that only a local photographer can know.

Lavender is not the only blossom putting on its best dress for us. In the village squares tall hollyhocks, red geraniums, lantana and a whole host of exotic Mediterranean flowers will be tumbling out of olive jars, or clustering around colorful wooden shutters. Surrounding the villages there are vineyards too, bursting with bright green growth under the torpid sun. The floors of the valleys are patchworks of sunflower fields, lavender fields and wheat fields, with a cherry orchard here and there.

As a grand finale to our tour we will join in the celebration of Bastille Day at our nearest village on July 14. This summer festival brings out the best in everyone. Villagers decorate their streets with flags and lights, and everyone, young and old, dances the night away to the sound of local bands, accordion players, and small groups of singers. At the end of the night there will be a display of fireworks. Imagine a warm night in a small village in the south of France, with friendly welcoming people, plenty of wine and food, and music to dance to. Magical!

Because of the crowds and heat we will not be visiting towns such as St. Remy de Provence or Aix en Provence. Although there will be some tourists, during our tour this July we were pleasantly surprised at how un-crowded the villages were. Probably because of the low dollar the huge numbers of American visitors that flooded the region at the end of the nineties are still staying away. Anyway we will be up earlier than anyone else and will have the villages and landscapes to ourselves.

Provence will get under your skin as it did ours. We did not want to leave. Now is the time to visit Provence before everyone realizes what they have been missing.

to sign up for a tour click here

for images of the Provence 2008 tour group click here

for clients images from previous tours to Provence click here and scroll to the section on France

for more of Julien Lautier's images of Provence click here

for some of Barbara's monochrome images of Provence click here

for some of Barbara's color images from previous photo tours to Provence click here