Landscape Painting, Languedoc - Bouzigues

The beautiful village of Bouzigues is only a few miles up the road from Meze.  Bouzigues is famous throughout France for its oysters and popular with those "in the know" for its quiet and gently sloping beaches.

Bouzigues sits on a spur that juts out into the Bassin de Thau with the unmistakeable silhouette of Sete directly across the water to the south. The clear water and purity of light had attracted a gaggle of watercolourists, on this particular day, who had bagged all the shady spots, so I had to my sketches in the full (and rather hot) sun.

The last time I visited Bouzigues I didn't stay long because of the unbelievable noise coming from a large pile-driver. Now I could see what they had been doing, namely building the marina in this painting.

There is something inexplicably wonderful about white yachts, glistening reflections and those masts with their rigging clanging in the breeze.  I can still hear them now; a sound that could only be made by ropes idly slapping against aluminium masts.