Sunflowers
During our summer 2026 trip to Provence, we spent a lot of time driving the backroads around Valensole, a town known for its proximity to lavender fields. However, lavender isn’t the only thing grown on the Valensole plateau. Wheat, vegetables, and other crops including sunflowers are also common. We happened across a sunflower field one afternoon and stopped to photograph it.
In the upper left of the photograph, you can just barely see some lavender, which was growing next to the sunflower field. I considered photographing that with the sunflowers, but from that angle you would only have seen the back of the flowers — not nearly as photogenic. I also liked the line of trees along the road at the back of the frame.
These flowers aren’t as dense as they appear — I stood back a bit and used a longer zoom lens, which helped compress the image.
I had hoped to get back to this field in better light (maybe sunrise), but in the end I focused on the lavender instead.
I plant regular bird seed sunflowers by the broadcast method. It is more for holding the soil and keeping the ragweed in check when a field is fallow, but it sure looks nice and the gold fitches are happy campers. I put in winter rye on that field this past fall. I cut a maze into it in June. The kids have enjoyed it all summer.
That sounds really nice!