The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres

The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres is the largest building in all of Chartres, France. It is also the center of the town and for good reason. Known for its asymmetrical bell towers and particular blue stained glass, Notre Dame de Chartres is easily one the most iconic French Gothic cathedrals of France. As the only student that opted to go on that trip, during our time in Paris, I was happy to have the whole building to myself as you would say. However it was also difficult since I didn't have a tripod for the interior of the structure, so again I found myself tucking the camera under my chin and hoping for the best. Luckily with such a beautiful structure its hard to take a bad shot, though many were blurry.

In the interior of the cathedral, I was especially drawn to the stained glass windows as I imagine most other people were too. Unfortunately, nothing can really recreate that specific blue in the glass, so my photographs do it no justice, the windows are definitely something only the human eye can see. At history goes, the master glass maker (I don't know the proper term) died with the secret chemical mixture to make that blue in the glass. The blue of the glass is most amazing when light is shining through it as it is the most luminous, richest blue I have ever seen in my life.

Another interesting part of the cathedral is the restoration work being done on it. As you can see in the photography of the choir, the white of lime stone just radiates in the interior of the building. 800 years of soot and build up has been removed to show the brightness the structure would of originally been seen in. It will be a worth while trip to visit Chartres again after the cleaning has been finished.

The exterior of the building as equally as interesting as the interior. The play of the light falling in and out of the recesses of the walls and sculptures, gives the building an odd feeling of lightness despite it being so incredibly large. The buttresses were rather eye catching in the afternoon, as the sun was at an angle and caught the high lights of the roof and casted shadows onto the walls. Notre Dame de Chartres is definitely one of my favorite churches in France.

Flowers in Provence

While the vegetation of Provence isn't lush as a rain forest it certainly produces beautiful flowering plants. As an assignment, my photo class had to focus on the natural world and while shooting for this assignment I noticed the amount of purple flowering plants. I suppose the amount of iron in the soil creates a lot of purple flowers.

The three images of purple flowers are just a few of the many other varieties in the region. The first image of red-violet flowers was on a hike down the foot path to Bonnieux, it was morning after breakfast and the light was lovely at that time. It was a good day to go because the night before it had rained so there was extra dew on the leaves of the plants. I found this little patch of weeds and loved the color contrast of the flowers and how the light illuminated some areas but shaded others. It created this extra depth within the photo. The other two photos were also on hikes, the tall flowering plant was on an afternoon hike in a more aired area that had less trees, where the low lying flowering ivy was on the other side of the mountain in a heavily wooded area. These flowers easily catch your eye amidst the dark green and browns of the garrigue. Though it may be an obvious choice for a subject of a photo, I think they are unique to this area and represent Provence as a fertile and peculiar land.

On the subject of what makes Provence different, I'd like to talk about the other two photos. Provence is heavily farm land and has a warm climate suitable for cherry trees. Rows and rows of these flowering trees stretch endless throughout Provence and especially in the Luberon. The beginning of April seems to be their main blossoming time and luckily we here in Lacoste get to see it. I've only had short encounters with orchards in the United States (not counting oranges) and I have come to enjoy them more and more. The photo of the cherry tree orchard is also on the same foot path to Bonnieux, also taken that morning. I was delighted with how the light shown through the with flowers of the trees. On the other hand, with the last photo of moss on a rock, I took this photo because of the textures of the moss and rocks. Something you see often in Provence, due to the aired climate, is this multi-colored squishy moss that absorbs the water that comes pouring out of the rocks here. This was at Forte De Buoux on a class field trip and it was hard not to notice all the moss on the stones there. I had to climb a bit to find this specific moss though, its different from the kind that is closer to the ground as it isn't as leafy or as green. Though it isn't one of my strongest photos, I have a strange attachment for it and find it rather soothing to look at. All in all the nature assignment was not quite the success as the urban assignment, likely because I enjoy to photograph architecture more, however I was able to see first hand the landscape and vegetation of Provence, which is undeniably valuable.

Architecture in Provence

One of the most interesting aspects of Provence is the architecture. There are so very many centuries of buildings here and it is fascinating for me because in America all of our architecture is so young in comparison. I especially enjoy photographing buildings because of the geometry and graphic quality the photographs produce. On Saturday my Treasures of Provence (art history class) went to the Abbaye de Senanque near Gordes. The main building is Romanesque from the 12th century, it is a Cistercian Abbey which means the architecture is very simple, no decoration and little ornamentation. I like Cistercian architecture because of this simplicity, I agree with their beliefs against materialistic and highly decorative monasteries/churches because it makes sense to me and if you want to be closer to go you must be further away from worldly things. As a formalist I find the greatest beauty in the shape, lines and forms of architecture and Senanque focuses on just that.

Trying to photograph the interior spaces was somewhat difficult, navigating around 30 other students, trying to hold my camera steady and still trying to listen to the tour guide. I found that I would have to hold my camera against my chest in a somewhat locked position to keep it from moving, but this meant I wasn’t able to look through the viewfinder to see what I was taking a picture of. It was fairly dark inside so I had to use a wide aperture and slow shutter speed to take the photos. A tripod would have been most useful at this time. Even though I didn’t get to hear that much of what the tour guide was talking about, I felt I really got a good look at the structure due to me being the straggler still taking photos. I’m glad we went in the morning because the light was beautiful; morning light is so pretty to me since it is a brighter more blue light. And since the walls were bare, blue light makes the stones look cooler, which to me helps describe the space because it was like a refrigerator in there. I think the Abbaye de Senanque is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in and it will forever stand out in my memory.

Water in Provence

Water in Provence

I grew up on the coast and I was always fascinated with water, maybe I could attribute it to me as an Aquarius. Anyways, while here in Lacoste I have been hearing and reading about all the natural spring water in the area. In the history books it talks about the Fontaine de Vaucluse, which is a natural spring that gushes up from the earth like a manmade spring. I'd very much like to see it but the water near by is also very interesting as well. I grew up in Florida and much of our water is taken from the aquifer made of the limestone Florida literally floats on. The water runs through the ground and the limestone and becomes purified. Then we drill into the aquifers to get the water or it comes out naturally in the form of springs. Springs in Florida are very popular and I spend many a summer visiting and playing in them. I suppose those experiences have strengthened my interest in other springs. I think what really interests me about the springs in southern France is that they are used for drinking purposes rather than protected by national forests, though I imagine some are.

For my photography class, we went to Gordes, and I ended up finding these little signs that had little hiking dudes on them with arrows pointing. I followed them and they took me to the valley where all the water runs to in Gordes. I could here the water falling and cascading so I hurried along. I eventually found the waterfalls, though small, and further down the stream was a Lavoir. In France you don’t see public drinking fountains but you do find Lavoirs which is spring water coming out of pipes for locals and travelers to use. However, the Lavoir in Gordes (see image above) seemed to be in disuse and there were many signs saying non potable. Still it caught my eye because the moss had grown around the pipes. My favorite pipe, the moss had grown in such a way that the water came out and then back in. The water is so clear and beautiful. The water eventually runs back into the earth and the process starts over again.

Another part of my interest in these Lavoirs is the journey to find them. There are two in Lacoste, one at the bottom of Lacoste and one at the top of the mountain. I have already visited the bottom one, so my next hiking trip is to find the one at the top of the mountain. When we went to Gordes, I found their Lavoir completely out coincidence and pure curiosity. While following those little signs I found a semi-deserted are of the village. It was eerie and yet very cool because it really felt like I was exploring. I’m a curious person and I’m finding that following my curiosity is really showing me some amazing things in Provence.