Wedding photographer at the Domaine de Saint Louis

A seventeenth-century country house at the bottom of a valley, on the banks of the Argens, across a hundred and thirty hectares of woodland, vines and cultivated land.

Domaine de Saint Louis lies near Lorgues, in the central Var. It takes its name from the knights of the Order of Saint Louis, created by Louis XIV, and it has just come out of two years of restoration.

I am a documentary photographer, and I make wedding reportages. At Saint Louis, the reportage moves between four settings without a single transfer, plane trees, terraces, lawn and the banks of the Argens, and that is exactly the kind of day my way of working is made for.

The century-old plane trees

This is the estate's first setting, and the most useful in summer.

A century-old plane tree produces shade nothing replaces: dense, high, spread across dozens of square metres, with light coming down filtered through the leaves. At three in the afternoon in July, it is the only place on a Provençal estate where you can seat people without making them suffer.

Photographically that shade is a gift. It evens out faces, it removes hard contrast, and backlight through the leaves gives light nobody manufactures in a studio.

The banks of the Argens

The estate runs down to the river, and that is what distinguishes it from the other large Var properties.

Water changes a couple session. It reflects the sky and lifts light from below, it brings movement into a still image, and it offers a more natural register than terraces and lawns. Riverside planting, denser and cooler, produces greens the vines do not have.

Allow for the walk: reaching the river from the house takes a few minutes, and the ground calls for suitable shoes.

The terraces and the lawn

The restored house opens onto several terraces, with the valley behind. The lawn offers the space needed for a symbolic ceremony or a cocktail hour, without the stiffness of a formal garden.

An estate offering terraces, lawn, plane trees and river gives four distinct registers without a single transfer. That is what matters most to a reportage, and it is rare.

The valley, and what it does to the light

The estate sits in a valley, which has a direct consequence: the sun disappears behind the slopes earlier than on open ground.

The last hour of light therefore arrives sooner than you would think, and it drops fast. I set the couple session accordingly, rather than working to the printed sunset time.

In exchange, the mornings here are soft and long, which serves the preparations particularly well.

A place to stay rather than a function room

The estate presents itself as a place to stay before it is a venue, and that changes the kind of wedding held there.

When guests are housed on site, the rhythm relaxes. Nobody watches the clock, nobody gets back on the road, and the end of the evening produces images you never obtain otherwise. Weddings running over two or three days make full sense here.

Getting there

The estate lies about an hour from Nice and Toulon airports, an hour from the Aix-en-Provence high-speed rail station, and twenty minutes from Les Arcs Draguignan station.

That last one is the useful piece of information for guests travelling from far away: it allows an arrival by train without going through an airport.

What happens if it rains?

The restored house offers indoor spaces. For the couple session, the plane trees shelter you from a light shower, but the riverbanks become unusable. I would then rather reschedule it for another day, which is simple when you are staying on site.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the estate? Near Lorgues, in the central Var, on the banks of the Argens. An hour from Nice and Toulon, twenty minutes from Les Arcs Draguignan station.

Can we stay on site? The estate is first and foremost a place to stay. Conditions are arranged directly with them, and it is what changes the rhythm of the day most.

Can we photograph by the river? The riverbanks are open to a couple session, allowing a few minutes on foot and a change of shoes. They are the estate's most distinctive setting.

When is the best season? May to October. The plane trees make July and August workable, which is not true of every Var estate.

How early is a date settled? Twelve months is usually enough for the date itself. The estate presents itself as a place to stay before it is a venue, so the rooms are what you secure first.

Tell me about your day, and we will work out together how it is photographed.