Tag: France

Visit Rouen

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

I’ve lived a short journey away from Rouen for many years and never been. Time to put that right and visit Rouen! It’s Spring and the season of April showers. Not a problem in Rouen. As you visit Rouen you can pop in to the numerous museums, churches and shops when it rains and wander around the large pedestrian only area when the sun shines. Here are some tips and photos to help you plan your visit Rouen.

The Churches

There are 4 significant and well known churches in Rouen:

  1. Saint Jeanne d’Arc church
  2. Saint-Ouen Abbey
  3. Notre-Dame Cathedral
  4. Saint-Maclou church

All have there merits, and are worth visiting.

  1. Saint Jeanne d’Arc church: located at the historical location where Jeanne d’Arc was burnt at the stake, it’s also by the market. I can’t resist fresh oysters so enjoyed a selection and glass of wine at the Comptoir des halles (opens in a new tab)
  2. Saint-Ouen Abbey: founded in 563, and currently being renovated. It’s just the time to take the huge volumes
  3. Notre-Dame Cathedral: 12th century gothic cathedral, and the subject of many paintings by the impressionist painter, Monet.
  4. Saint-Maclou church: Another gothic church, started in 1437, this time Catholic.

Architecture

The streets

A large part of the town centre is pedestrianised so you can walk safely around the historic centre. Soak up the atmosphere created by narrow cobbles streets, old shops and museums.

The town

There are also many impressive sights around the town

The town hall, the station and the Normandy Parliament. Keep your eyes open for the lego repairs.

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Weekend in Normandy

The Roman Aqueduct de Barbegal

Arc de Triomphe

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

There can be very few sites around the world that are as well known as the Arc de Triomphe. It is a must visit spot in Paris, France. Along with the Avenue des Champs Elysées and Place Charles de Gaulle. I found myself in Paris with an hour free, and I had never visited the Arc de Triomphe. It’s been waiting for my visit since 1836. Here is how the visit went.

Access

As the Arc de Triomphe is located at the top of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées and Avenue de la Grande-Armée it is easy to get to. Well served by bus routes and, most importantly, the station Charles de Gaulle Etolie, on the RER A and several metro lines, 1, 2 and 6. Access to the Arc de Triomphe monument is via a tunnel which is located at the very top of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Do not even think about crossing the road!

Entrance is by ticket only. These can be purchased in advance, or at the ticket booth in the tunnel. Do not queue if you have a ticket already. On the other hand don’t purchase a ticket if you meet the free entry criteria. Free entry was available when I went, for example, for under 18s, and EU students up to 25. For free entry you have to queue at the ticket booth. Information and tickets can be found here (opens in a new tab). It’s also worth noting that if you do not want to visit the interior and rooftop you do not need a ticket nor do you queue. You can just follow the stairs up to the surface and visit the tomb of the unknown soldier, the exterior of the monument and the place. I have been very happy doing this many times.

Outside the Monument

There is plenty to see just around the monument if you choose not to visit inside, for example you find it too busy.

Getting to the roof

Fortunately for the less able access to the roof top is available by elevator. There are many ramps too to help avoid steps. It’s also worth noting there are toilets in the roof area.

However most visitors are expected to climb up and down the spiral staircases. There are 284 steps. Your thighs will burn at the top. Finally there is a security check before you can enter and bags cannot exceed: 40x40x20cm.

The view from the top

Enough words, this is the view I had.

Whilst you are in the area

There are many things to visit in the area.

  • The Avenue de Champs-Elysées and its shopping
  • The Avneue George V which leads you to the fashion houses of Paris 8eme
  • Down Avenue Kléber there is the Trocadero, with its gardens, fountains, museums and most iconic view of the Eiffel tower.

Other posts that may interest you:

There are 2 blog posts which relate to this area

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Walking with a macro lens

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: < 1 minute

The bright sunny days in Spring are ideal to go walking with a macro lens. The sun is relatively low, the air clear, the plants all nice a new. I took all the following buds, flowers and seeds in a radius of a few kilometers. The fact that I was walking with a macro lens meant that I saw more. I was looking for original seeds and new growth. Unfortunately it meant that my walk took a little longer than expected.

This local park is typical of the scenery this time of year in the Yvelines in France. It is the only photograph that wasn’t taken with my 100mm macro lens.

There are new flowers and buds in the garden in Spring alongside the leaves and seeds from last year’s growth. There are more photographs of flowers and plants in my gallery.

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End of the day – the Eiffel Tower

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

I was not very quick getting out of the house today. However a short trip into Paris and I realised I could take some photographs of the most iconic tower at end of the day – the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was late in the day and I thought as I walked around the site I could capture the tower in different lighting.

In the evening bring a tripod

I had brought my full kit bag with me fortunately. It contains spare cards, batteries, objectives and 2 tripods. A classic tripod that attaches to the outside and a small one with bendy legs inside. It was the latter that proved most useful. The Eiffel tower is well known and very busy. The small tripod allowed me to easily use walls, statues and the ground for my shots. With the advantage of not bothering too many people.

The light

The glorious light of a winter’s day gives way to various stages of light as the sun sets and the light has to pass through more of our planet’s atmosphere. I discuss this further in another blog post. The phases for these photos are:

  • Golden hour
  • Blue hour
  • Twilight
  • Night

The route

I started at the Alma-Marceau metro station. This is on the right bank of the River Seine and allows me to approach the tower via the pont de l’Alma. I then crossed the river Seine and walked towards the tower along the Quai Jacques Chirac. Once at the foot of the tower I walked away from the river towards the Champs de Mars. Then across the gardens to walk back to the river and back to the foot of the Eiffel tower. Then back across the river Seine via the Pont d’Iena. Up the pathways via the Trocadero gardens and finally back into the metro system and home. This short walk took me to the end of the day – the Eiffel Tower was definitely the star of the show.

Also along the route

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Explore underground Paris

Late evening sunlight

Low light needs a tripod and patience

Visiting the Arc de Triomphe and the business district La Défense

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Get started with long exposure 

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Long exposure photos can be some of the most remarkable images. But how do you get started with long exposure photography? Let me tell about a recent trip I did to Brittany, France, and give you some simple tips to get started.

I was lucky to be able to visit Tregastel, France during the 49th 24 hour sailing regatta (see the town’s French website – opens in a new tab).  This event hadn’t been held since 2019 due to the COVID pandemic. 

As the event takes place over 24 hours there was an ideal opportunity to experiment taking pictures of sailing yachts at night.  Additionally, there was a firework display scheduled that evening. A real treat.   Also a chance to try some other techniques.

What Is Long Exposure Photography? 

Exposure defines the duration that the camera’s sensor is exposed to light.  Originally it was the film, now it is the image sensor.  A short exposure lets in a little light, useful when in bright sunlight, and has the advantage of freezing movement as the subject is only seen for a fraction of a second by the sensor.  Long exposure photography does the opposite and uses a slow shutter speed keeping the sensor exposed to light for a longer period.  A long exposure will be defined when we keep the shutter open for a second or longer.  

Cameras will calculate the exposure time for you in automatic mode and you will see the time increase as light fades.  Many camaeras have a maximum of 30 seconds. In manual, or semi-automatic, mode you can set the time yourself.  Finally you can use Bulb mode, where you control the shutter, and it remains open as long as you are pressing the shutter release button.  

What does a long exposure create? 

As mentioned above long exposures will capture motion as the camera’s sensor is exposed to light for a longer period and  therefore a moving object will be seen by several parts of the sensor.  A common subject of long exposure landscape photos are rivers and waterfalls. As each drop of water travels across the sensor the water blurs and creates lines of blurred water, almost like clouds.  (You can see a long exposure waterfall image on the waterfall blog post) Images of waves at sea do the same thing.  Blurring will occur in any part of the scene where there’s motion.  This softens the image. 

In my case, even if I was by the sea, my target was to capture something moving in the dark.  In this case the long exposure lets what little light there is to be captured by the sensor.  This is how you can capture stars.  Of course, anything that is moving will  create the same soft blurred lines that a drop of falling water does. Whether it a boat or a star. So how do you get started with long exposure?

Tips for long exposure photography 

Taking photographs with a long exposure time is perfect for capturing motion blur and light trails. But there are some simple rules that must be followed.  Above I talked about moving subjects, but unfortunately the same is true if the camera moves.  If you shake the camera the tiniest amount when you press the shutter release button everything in the image will have that blurred movement effect and that is rarely the desired effect. 

Long exposure rules: 

  1. Use a tripod. Helps avoid camera shake. 
  1. Use a remote release button. This could be a wire, and remote control or a phone app. 
  1. Try various camera setting. There are broad rules, but you really need to set the camera up for your specific environment.  

Typical long exposure settings 

  1. The 500 rule. For star photography the 500 rule estimates the maximum exposure time you can shoot before stars become blurry or star trails appear. You divide 500 by the focal length of your lens. To capture the sky you would use a wide angle lens, for example,  a 18mm lens, then the rule says 500 / 18 = 27.78 seconds. This is just under the 30 second maximum that most cameras allow for a long exposure before going to bulb mode. 
  2. For fireworks. Fireworks are generally very bright so easy to see, but moving quickly and appear unpredictably. So start with ISO 200, F/11 and bulb. Press the shutter  release button when you hear the firework launch and keep it open until the firework fades. Check and see if you need to modify anything or everything.
  3. Use manual focus. It’s not easy for a camera to automatically focus on a firework which hasn’t even been lit yet. So set the focus to manual. We know the firework will be in the sky so set focus to infinity. In reality it’s not easy for us to do this either. Pointing the camera into the night sky and trying to focus when you can see nothing. A technique that can help is to set the camera to video mode and focus on some visible object, then switch to manual focus and finally back to camera mode. 

In my photographs you can see various fireworks which, ultimately, I took with F/7 to let a little more light in.  These simple tips should help you get started with long exposure photos.

If you are interested in other long exposure images take a look a the low light blog post.

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The Sentier des Douaniers

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

One of the most predictable routes to get fantastic views of the beautiful French coastline is to walk along The Sentier des Douaniers. The path was created 100s of years ago to allow the coast to be monitored and prevent smuggling. The path runs along the Mediterranean coast by Toulon. Here The Sentier des Douaniers is referred to as the sentier du littoral, a less adventurous name.

Not for everyone

The path is no longer a wild track for the most part and has been made safer and more accessible. Around Toulon work is still in progress and part of The Sentier des Douaniers is currently closed (May 2022) for work. You should also be aware that it runs along the very edge of sea, close to cliffs at some stages. If you take the route you will have to walk along beaches, along the cliffs and may get wet feet.

My walk

I took the bus 6 from the centre of Toulon, direction La Terre Promise. Bus is the best way to get around Toulon and I recommend the 10 trip pass which I installed on my phone. All the information is on the Reseau Mistral website (opens in a new tab). Time was limited so I got off at Magaud to start my walk back to Toulon from the Anse de Magaud. Anse is the French for a small deep bay.

From the bus stop I took the chemin de la mer. It is a single track road down to the east end of the anse. Although I didn’t, there is a restaurant on the beach here should you wish to start with lunch.

Fabulous rock formations

I was surrounded by the sea and rugged rocks along the walk. I keep my eyes open for interesting shots and different perspectives. Here are a couple of the photos and one that I think captures the tranquility of my day.

From the anse I walked around the pebble beach to the fishing village of Cap Brun.

Cap Brun

Walk up through the village and car parks to the promontory. Here you have splendid views of the Anse de Magaud that I have just walked along and to the west the Anse de Méjean, with Toulon in the distance.

At Cap Brun the Sentier des Douaniers offers spectacular views.

Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Cap-Falcon

On Cap Brun there is the Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Cap-Falcon which is not open to the public. There is an impressive statue of the Virgin Mary which was installed in 1975. The statue itself dates from the second world war.

Work in Progress

Unfortunately the work on The Sentier des Douaniers is still in progress from here tio Toulon. So I had to walk up to the road via the chemin de la Batterie Basse. I walked to town but you could take the 23 bus to town (it is only 4 stops). This takes you to Mourillon, and its beaches. There is also the Tour Royale, which is closed at the moment, and its park. There are public toilets here too.

Back to town

Because of the presence in Toulon of the large naval base its not possible to follw the coast to town so head back to the Av. des Tirailleurs Sénégalais and had back to the Mayol Stadium.

As a little treat I used my mistral travel pass to take the boat across the bay to Sablettes. The pass is valid on both the bus and boat services. There was no other reason than I wanted to take é boat trip. I then took the 8 bus back from the other side of the bay to see the town.

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There are many pages with photos of the sea and landscapes for example

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Natural gardens help protect nature

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

More and more we need to leave our gardens to grow unhindered in spring to help nature – birds, insects and plants. Natural gardens help protect nature in contrast to the over tendered lawn, fertilized flower beds and treated plants. This year I have been resisting the temptation to overwork the garden and I have tried to leave it as a natural garden.

Could I have a rarity?

This May may have been the warmest on record and it’s taken it’s toll on the lawn. It’s also meant that I’ve had to water some of the plants that I have planted. My potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes in particular. However there are some other plants that I never see normally that are thriving. Most impressive are 2 plants in the middle of the dry grass that must get mowed every year normally.

I am not an expert but a bit of research leads me to think they might be Pyramidal Orchids ( Anacamptis pyramidalis) Apparently, quite rare if it is. You can read more about it on Wikipedia (opens in a new tab).

Touring the garden

Having may curiosity piqued by such a find I set off to tour the flowers in the garden on a random May afternoon. I have planted tomatoes, fuchsias, geraniums, honeysuckle and roses. But there are many others. The hot sun kept the daisies closed but below are the others.

There are chives, some sort of tiny pea, wild strawberries and climber in amongst the honeysuckle.

Hopefully I can get as much pleasure from the natural garden, maybe save some time, money and back ache at the same time give nature a boost which in turn should help us all. Some of the wild flowers are discrete and you need to taker a closer look, but small is not necessarily less beautiful. We shall see how the garden develops. In parallel I will continue to look after my potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes.

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Some of these photos are available for purchase on my store. Or from the menu above, or even buy your art directly below.


Please, take a look and tell your friends about my work and sites.

Other pages that may interest you

There is the Flowers and Plants album, and there are 3 blog posts relating to flowers

Reflections on water

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

The early part of 2022 has seen a lot of rain. The river Seine is rising once again and puddles are everywhere. The wide well maintained easy walkways are turning into muddy cross country challenges. Water is an unpredictable medium and can give surprising images. On this day I decided to focus on reflections on water. I returned to the Étang de la Galiotte and walked around the parc du peuple de l’herbe. I have published a post about this park before when I visited in June 2021. This post is here and here you will find information on how to get there.

Today I was travelling light, no tripods, filters, spare objectives, and went by chance just to see what the river was doing at the end of the day following a lot of rain. As I have said before (in my post on Urban Settings) I like to set myself a theme so today it was reflections on water.

The Étang de la Galiotte

The lake is separated from the river Seine by a thin strip of land. This forms part of the walkways around the park. The first photo is taken from the viewing platform here looking away from the river. The second from the northern pathway looking towards the south and the floating buildings.

River Seine

Looking the other way, to the west is the river Seine. Paris is upstream (left) from this point. As it’s been raining a lot the river is rising and encroaching on the river banks and viewing platforms.

The parc du peuple de l’herbe

Heading back inland and trying to stick to my theme the paths were wet on sometimes underwater. There are many seating areas and picnic tables and these would be great for summer days out. But in winter after a lot of rain these chairs and their reflections should give you an idea of the general state of the park.

You will find other photos of reflections in many pages, for example Beautiful Landscapes, Using a zoom lens, Spring walk along the Seine.

Some of my photos are available for purchase on my store.

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Late evening sunlight

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

The late fall/autumn evenings announce the arrival of a sun that is lower in the sky and gives a warmer glow to your images. Late evening sunlight is often enhanced by a sprinkling of cloud in a crisp blue sky. I particularly like it for creating silhouettes, sunbursts and warm panoramic scenes.

The sunlight early in the morning is also a desirable commodity and gives wonderful lighting to your photographs. Late evening sunlight, like early morning sunlight, takes a different, longer journey through the atmosphere before reaching the subject of your photograph. The blue light tends to get dispersed on this longer journey leaving more red and oranges.

The Golden and Blue hours

As the quantity of blue light is reduced the Late evening sunlight has a more golden colour, and this gives rise to the popular term of the Golden Hour. The golden hour occurs shortly after the sun has risen and before the sun sets. As the sun sets and sinks below the horizon all those red and orange lights are fired over our heads and the light turns bluer as we head towards night. Likewise in eth morning, before the sun rises the light has a blue tinge to it. It isn’t difficult to understand why these periods are known as the blue hours. It’s worth noting that neither the blue, nor golden hours actually last rigorously an hour. Their duration depends on the time of year and where you find yourself on the planet.

Position of the sun

The lighting around dawn and dusk are determined by the position of the sun. During the golden hour the sun’s position is low. The late evening sunlight of the golden hour gives you :

  • more reds and oranges
  • longer shadows
  • lower intensity light
  • side or straight on lighting

The midday sun would be the opposite lighting. The sun gives

  • bright whites and dark blacks
  • short shadows
  • bright bleached washed out colours
  • top down lighting

So the golden hour is the prefer time for many photographers.

Morning and Evening

There are two golden hours each day. In summer, the closer you live to the poles, the earlier or later you have to be out taking photographs. That can be a considerable advantage of the winter golden hours for the late risers. Taking advantage of the both golden hours is not always required. Choose the best one for your subject. The sun won’t be totally opposite in the morning and evening golden hours but if the sun is the wrong side of your subject in the morning, there is a good chance in the late evening sunlight you will have the shot you are looking for.

As the day turns to night the photographs are transformed with the changing light. The last few minutes of the late evening sunlight give beautiful sunsets.

Some of these photos are available for purchase on my store. Or even buy your art directly below.


Other posts that may interest you

End of the day – the Eiffel tower

Low light needs a tripod and patience

Walk around the Ile Grande

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

If you have half a day for a walk and find yourself in Brittany, north-west of Lannion, there is a beautiful walk to do around the coast of the Ile Grande. And it’s a loop so you can start and finish at the same point. Where do you start? As it’s a loop you can start your walk around the Ile Grande almost anywhere. If you are in your car almost every time the road gets close to the coast you can park and join the coastal walk there.

A classic choice of starting point for your walk around the Ile Grande would be Port Saint Sauveur in the west – a small port, with toilet facilities. So my walk around the Ile grande started there at low tide in the summer.

Port Saint Sauveur

I decided, arbitrarily, to walk anti clockwise around the ile. And this takes you past the marshland and the road that accesses the ile Grande. For almost the entire walk the path is clearly marked and easy to follow. It does get a little narrower on the north side.

As you walk around to the east there are dunes which are protected and being restored. But there also beaches and water sports should you wish to make a day of it.

East coast

There are plenty of flowers and plants to photograph too, although looking back over my images from my Walk around the Ile Grande I was clearly drawn to the sea and the majority of my photos were of the sea and coastline. Just for good measure here is a cauliflower lookalike, a Bishop’s flower I believe.

Northern coast

On the northern coast there are several historical references to the old granite quarries of the past. This includes old rail lines, statues and a short explanation. There are small hidden beaches and impressive rock formations. Also it is worth noting that the white stones are there to protect the coastline from erosion.

As I headed back southwards to my starting point I passed the bird protection centre. they use an old quarry as a very large bird cage for birds who have almost recovered. Check if you can visit it.

Back to the start

And back to port Saint Sauveur, some 7.5km and between 2h30 and 3 hours, depending on how many photos you take.

If you are interested in visiting the region there is a website, in English, run by the tourist dept here. There is also an app on google play or apple.

I am a big fan of the area. My sunset was taken nearby. As was the mist in the landscape gallery.

How to purchase

Other photos of mine are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store, in the menu above or  via the store directly below.


Please, take a look and tell your friends about my work and sites.

Other pages that may interest you

There is a post about my walk along the sentier des douaniers near Toulon.