The circular lanes of Eguisheim

Eguisheim is fourteen kilometres south of Riquewihr and its plan is unusual enough to be the reason to go: the village grew in rings around the octagonal castle at the centre, so the two main lanes are circles. Walk one and you come back to where you started, past a continuous curve of half-timbered houses in yellow, pink, blue and green with vines trained up the fronts and geraniums on every rail.

The curve is what makes it photograph differently from a straight street: the houses fall away round the bend, so a long lens keeps stacking colour instead of ending on a wall. The Grand Rue and the two circular lanes each behave that way. The fountain and the chapel at the centre give the open square, and the wash-house lanes give the closed frames.

Summer is peak colour, when the window boxes are at their fullest; October gives gold vines on the slopes just outside the walls. Light is indirect in the lanes for most of the day, which is easy for portraits.

Eguisheim is a small village that receives a lot of visitors, so early morning is again the answer, and it is a fifteen to twenty minute drive from Riquewihr. Parking is outside the ring and the lanes are pedestrian in the centre — plan the walk in with kit.