My lavender week in France part #4 : ...A slow day photographing my lavender world...

I had reached my destination in Montbrun-les-Bains where I would stay for a few days. I had been driving and driving and was happy to take it slow for the day. I had marked this day as "break" in my travel plan. What does a break mean in my world? Catch up on some sleep, do some Netflix binge-watching. But since I was in the south of France on a lavender mission, I did plan on leaving the apartment for a quick drive around the Baronnies as well, "if I felt like it".

Things didn't go as planned. And there are multiple reasons for it.

1. The night before I had a surprise encounter with the Milky Way. I didn't have this planned but it excited me so much that I had a hard time sleeping that night. It also resulted in me wanting to explore other spots for astrophotography.
2. Internet sucked. At home, when I binge-watch, I turn into a sloppy creature wearing super comfy clothes only for indoors. I take off my bra and put my hair in a ponytail. I replace my contacts with my century-old damaged glasses. And now, the park manager decided to only have wifi available near the reception. Public places and binge-watching doesn't go well together... #nobingewatchingforme
3. There was no supermarket near the apartment. And since I fell asleep right after I arrived the day before, I didn't have anything to eat except for a leftover croissant.
4. It was Sunday...

^{Montbrun-les-Bains is nicely situated against a hill}

Montbrun was very much a sleeping town when I drove through it, looking for "something". And so I decided to drive "just a little further". I ended up being on the road for 6 hours...

First goal: Petrol! You don't want to risk running out of gas on a Sunday in the middle of nowhere. I knew I wanted to drive to Nyons but decided to make a detour for petrol. I was hoping they would also have a shop attached to it but none of that. It was a self-service station.

Next goal: Food! Supermarkets were closed in the smaller towns. So I gave up searching for one and decided to find one in Nyons. It was the right move. Nyons was very much alive! I struggled with the parking meter (How do you "Type in the numbers of your license plate" if you have letters?) until a French man discovered that you don't have to pay on Sunday. I went to the bakery (boulangerie) and got myself some French pains for the day. At the same time, the temperature outside tried to kill me. So minutes later I walked back to my car, armed with an ice-cream.

Near Saint-May, the road started to change. I was driving through an amazing canyon, also known as the Gorge de Saint-May. Every now and then, big warning signs for falling rocks would show up next to the road. I loved how this part of the road followed the river. Every now and then a car would be parked next to it indicating a family was relaxing at the river just a bit further down. It brought back memories of little @r00sj3 in her water-shoes and those nasty pebbles always getting inside them hurting like a &*&#$. But also how awesome it was just to play around in those rivers, building dams, sailing your toy boats, following the streams... It was so tempting to stop the car and join... But I didn't bring a bathing suit nor a towel with me that day.

I made a right turn back into the park, to follow the rest of the Baronnies route. At this point I started feeling that I'd seen it all already. I didn't want to stop anymore. The views were good, but not spectacular anymore. It is just my response to an "overdose of landscape". And so I drove...and drove...and drove, not really paying attention that much anymore. "Just follow the route, get to Ferrassières and check out the lavender festival there"

And then... BOOM!

I drove near Le Poët-Sigillat (isn't that an awesome name for a town?), just looking into a purple valley with amazing looking lavender fields everywhere I looked. This was my first encounter with larger fields and I just had to stop my car to capture this. Only now that I am writing this blog, I realise that the tree that I thought looked so amazing in the field, is a very often photographed tree. And sadly for me (and the farmer), it used to look so much better in the past!

I took out my drone, looking for a way to fly over the purple sea and make it look good, but I need some additional steering practice. It just didn't work out the way I imagined it to. Sadly 😉.

It was time to head to Ferrassières if I wanted to be back in the apartment before dark. But only a few kilometres before arriving in this town, I found my spot.

^{Me, my car and my spot}

I don't know why, but I thought it was amazing. Perhaps the perfect spot for some astrophotography. The sun was setting behind the Mont Ventoux, the field looked super good, it was quiet and no farmers around!!

I opened the trunk of my car and took out everything I had with me. My 360 camera (the thumbnail of this post) needed some showtime again. But this was also perfect to try a bit of a selfie in the lavender. No annoying other tourists around! Just the lavender, my camera on a tripod and myself! Gotto say, after some 100 shots I can say that it is pretty hard to remote capture a nice photo of yourself in a lavender field 😎. But I'm pretty happy with the result!

With the sun setting, I aimed for a nice sunset photo. But without any clouds, this wasn't going to be very spectacular. Luckily, the peaks near Mont Ventoux gave a very nice layering effect that I decided to focus on instead.

And so it happened that I stayed in this spot forever. Experimenting with this light and the lavender, seeing the sun slowly disappear.

Finally, it was time for some sunset flying with my drone. Which didn't really work out the way I imagined (Just bring the filters next time!). But the silhouette it showed of myself in the light with the car next to me is just a very warm reminder of my evening in my own little lavender world. I tagged it in my Google maps... hopefully, to see again in the future!