Unless utterly and monotonically overcast, which is rare, the skies above the Haut Var (with elevations starting in the range of 400 meters—well over 1200 feet above sea level—and with innumerable plains, buttes, and terraced hillsides, with lots of sky if you want it, are always one way or another spectacular. They range from spectacularly clear, with a pure spectral blue with piercing violet undertones, to wonderful cloud formations that play with the sun. Different solar games at different times of the day.
The convergence of color is purely serendipitous. This tiny town in the Haut var of Provence has an even tinier public space where various communal events are held, performances, outdoor projection of films, dances, and the like. These chairs constitute the outdoor seating.
A doorway in a residential quarter. I shot this for the color of the walls and their dead matte velvety appearance.
Aups is a market town in the Haut Var, and at the gateway to even higher regions. The département, Les Alpes de Haute Provence, are only a handful of kilometers north, on the road to Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, the Gorges de Verdon, and Lac St. Croix. Perfectly unassuming, if not unprepossessing, Aups is an extraordinarily ordinary place, and somewhere just a fraction of a degree from paradise. Men of a certain age, having finished an earlier career of lifetime work, many of them at the soil, and all of them with a mastery of tools city folks have forgotten to learn to use.
No comment, but to bring your attention, if not already engaged, to the juxtaposition of commercial messages.