The lavender rows off the D6

East of Valensole village, the D6 crosses the plateau between fields that in the first week of July are solid purple from the roadside to the tree line. The frames that work are the simple ones: a stone cabanon standing in the rows, an almond or oak tree alone on a rise, a farm track running dead straight to the horizon between two blocks of colour. Everything is wide and low, so the composition is really about where you put the horizon and how much sky the day is giving you.

Sunrise is not optional. The light is low and warm, the plateau is empty, and — the reason nobody mentions in the guides — the bees are not out yet. From mid-morning the plants are working hives and the fields are a poor place to stand still in a dress. The season is short and honest: colour from the last days of June, peak through roughly the first ten days of July, harvest soon after, and by the third week the field you drove out for may be stubble.

Every field is somebody's crop. Stay on the tracks and the field edges — where the best frames are anyway — never walk into the rows, and do not pick. Bring water and a hat: there is no shade anywhere on the plateau.