Photo-Blog Hans-Josef Jeanrond

Fog clearing below the Massif des Maures

Nebel lichtet sich am Fuss des Massif des Maures

Le brouillard se lève au pied du Massif des Maures

31 January marked the end of the season for "season greetings" in France. This extended season gives French people a lot more time than those in most other countries to recover from celebrations before sending their New Year's wishes. It shows we have a different sense of time. (I say "we" since I have adapted a long time ago. Having to be exactly on time has become a strain...)
So it is time, even in France, to follow the greetings-entry of this blog with a new posting.

Even though we have already had a glimpse of spring last Sunday (25 January) seeing the mimosas blossom in Bormes les Mimosas, let us first come back to the spot that figured on the greeting card in the last posting.

Les arbres protecteurs

Protecting trees

Schützende Bäume

December 2007
(Click on the image to enlarge)

Driving, cycling, and hiking through the countryside of the Var, you often see trees planted next to sheds in the fields (and next to houses, of course). Some of these sheds are very small, most of them very old, and one wonders why it should be so important to have big trees so close to them, trees that sometimes seem to crush the sheds.

Change of scenery

Changement de décor

Neue Umgebung

(click on the image to enlarge)

Moving to Provence is a challenge:

Most French people think that you are retiring. Well I am not, and given the state of retirement finances in France and in Germany, I will probably never be able to retire. I hope my customers and prospects don't think I am retired, and they don't need to call upon me any more!
The people in the south suspect, that if you are not retired, you will not live here during the whole year. Probably thinking « no need to integrate these people », they won't be around most of the time.

Worse still: How do you move from a project of rather abstract photography at La Défense to the postcard-landscapes of Provence, photographed a million times before you get there? Or how do you write about your experience without subconsciously plagiarising Marcel Pagnol or Peter Mayle?