One of the golden rules of photography must be to never have your own reflection in a shot… I do know better, yet here I am framed by ‘les délices de St Remy’… I hadn’t noticed this sign writing before… maybe it has been there for ages, maybe not… but it charmed me. Not overly elaborate… just a sweet and old-fashioned font with a branch of olive… ‘the delights of St Remy’… the sign matched my mood.
I hadn’t taken a walk around the village with camera in hand, for some time… all things familiar do get taken for granted and I can be guilty of ignoring the quaint charm and picturesque nature of St Rémy. I do become complacent to the beauty of Provencal France… and forget to take photographs… Sometimes I just want to soak up the atmosphere without searching for a new image.. other days, like this particular evening, I want to snap away and never stop.
This door step had escaped me… I must have walked past it a hundred times…. the tin watering cans and the greenery are delightfully shabby chic and positioned beautifully on the step… Behind the glass, the screen with the pleated cream fabric frames the window perfectly.
Next door is one of my very favourite shop fronts and this one I have photographed before… It’s closed of course and I don’t think it has operated as a coiffeur for a long time. The worn writing with the buttery faded background against the rosy hue of the stone walls has often made me stop and think. The passage of time, so evident here, has transformed this retired shop into a place of beauty… We are so often focused on the passing of time as a negative, in the way we approach our lives today, that I enjoy to be reminded that ageing and ‘refinement’ are equally as beautiful as youth and perfection.
And these apartments… it was the blend of colours… the ‘French blue’ and the ‘Cyprus green’ of the shutters that caught my attention… I thought they were in harmony even though as a colour combination I would not have imagined to place them side by side. I am sure it is by accident… and the owners have chosen their shutter shades independently and without consultation… but par hasard… something lovely and unique has been created.
Sometimes the very familiar can be full of surprises… xv
