La Ponche at first light

La Ponche is the Saint-Tropez that existed before the yachts: a handful of lanes behind the port where fishermen's houses in faded pink, ochre and blue come down to a small shingle beach, with the Tour du Portalet and its stone arch closing one end. It is a two-minute walk from the Vieux Port and a different century.

Everything here is close and layered, which is what makes it good. Shoot through the arch to frame the couple against the sea, along the lanes for washing lines and shutters, and down on the beach itself where the fishing boats are still pulled up. Nothing is more than fifty metres from anything else, so a session can move fast and change background every few frames.

First light is the entire proposition. The lanes face several ways and the low sun finds gaps between the houses; the water in the little bay is dead calm before the wind gets up; and, crucially, nobody is there. By ten in July the same lanes are a slow file of visitors, and the beach has bodies on it. Winter mornings are the best-kept version of this location — same walls, same light, no one at all.

Practical: these are lived-in houses on narrow public lanes, so keep the noise down early and do not block doorways. The shingle beach is small and gets used; the rocks at the water's edge are slippery. Parking in the old town is effectively impossible in season — walk in, and remember that the single access road into Saint-Tropez jams from mid-morning in July and August.