A thread on photo tips would be a wonderful idea, Z, as we have so many great photographers on Fodors. No matter where we are with our skills, there is always more room to learn.

Thanks for listing your photo essays.

Beautiful photographs, zebec, and they brought about some wonderful memories!
We only spent two days in Aix and that only because I'd screwed up our reservations in St. Remy and we needed a last-minute overnight stay somewhere. I fell in love with Aix (count me among the ones who didn't love Avignon) and in fact, it was while sitting in the marketplace there that we decided to plan an extended time somewhere in Europe and ended up with four wonderful months in London with offshoot trips to Lisbon, Hamburg and several weekends in Paris.
I'm a terrible photographer but I have to say that something about Provence brought out the best photographs I've ever taken!
We're thinking about going to Madrid and Barcelona in the fall for our first post-covid overseas trip so if you have a photo essay of Spain, please provide the link.
PS the solo cafe drinker looks like a painting! You should have it blown up on canvas.

Zebec,

I just went through your beautiful photos again and they took me right back to September 2021. Such a vibe…

We did not get to Europe this year but are planning two trips next year and I am on the hunt for an atmospheric town in Northern Italy…

Or southwestern France perhaps. That’s where Figeac is, right? It seems tiny, no? I was looking at Toulouse or Montpellier perhaps….

Yo Irice,
Thanks again.
As for your hunt...we've just read about a village SW France called Olargues (think Carcassonne area).Tiny, not well-known.
Regarding size, Figeac is larger, an actual town. Montpelier is I believe, even bigger. Toulouse city has many fans.
Varenna comes to mind for northern Italy, as does the whole Val d'Aosta area.
You're spoiled for choice for both upcoming trips Irice!
I am done. the continent

We were in aix the other day! Shopping for Christmas presents. So I didn’t take a lot of photos. Really enjoy your photos. Happy that lrice topped it😀they are much better than mine.

Yes, The Continent! :)

Waiting on kids' plans to Japan before I can put a stake in the ground! Ahhhh!!! The clock is ticking!

Daijobu Irice. STOP PRESS--KarenWoo could def recco a certain small town in SW France...
I am done. the sushi

Thanks Zebec! Yes, Karen is a huge help! As are you.

L posted a couple of weeks ago that she had books on Provence. No takers so I grabbed them. Looked at them and IMMEDIATELY planned a trip. Now that I have seen your pics I wish I could go sooner.
I was going to ask about your"room at your youth hostel" so I could stay there too but then I scrolled down all your pics, read all your comments and realized what a kidder you are! But you and I do gravitate toward taking the same type of pcitures. I could publish volumes of books on door and windows.

Thanks, this started my morning off great!

Yo J47,
Good to see that you grabbed those books. Hope that they prove useful in some way.
I used to collect old guidebooks and especially old travel mags in order to use them with my students. NGs were worth gold to me in that regard.
It was my tradition to start off any given new unit of study (money, medieval history, wildlife, buildings, clothing, countries, foods, black studies and more) by dividing our class into teams. Each team would be given a bunch of those varied mags and books with specific pages having stickies attached. Those stickies indicated where to find imagery of our given theme. The task for the kids was to construct a visual collage of their own design using only those thematic images. Collages were attached to foamboard.
So if we were studying say, money, teams might've come up with a collage shaped like a dollar sign; if studying Ancient Egypt they might decide to fit all the associated images into a pyramid.

Bon Chance in Provence! You are required to show us all your TR.
I am done. the buzzing cicada