Rue du Général de Gaulle and the Dolder

Riquewihr has one street that matters and it runs uphill. The Rue du Général de Gaulle starts at the lower gate and climbs gently between sixteenth-century houses whose timber frames are painted ox-blood, blue, green and ochre, with window boxes of geraniums from May onwards. At the top it ends at the Dolder, the gate-tower of 1291 that still carries its clock and closes the frame perfectly at the end of a long lens.

The compression shot is the one to take: stand low on the street and let the houses stack up toward the tower. Wide, the same street gives leading lines up the cobbles with the timber on both sides. Then step off it — the Cour des Bergers, the Rue des Juifs and the courtyards behind the wine growers' gates are twenty metres away and empty.

Light in the street is indirect until late. The buildings are tall relative to the width, so most of the day you work in bounced light off painted wood; the last hour before sunset is when direct sun runs up the street from the west and the colours go properly saturated.

Coaches arrive around ten and the street is busy until late afternoon. From late November the Christmas market fills it with stalls and the crowd doubles. Vehicle access is restricted and parking is outside the walls, which fills early — check the current arrangements before a session with a lot of kit.