Bilder aus Frankreich, besonders aus der Provence und aus Paris. Pictures of France, especially from the Provence and from Paris. The stage photographs of the opera was taken with no flash, which was permitted according to the guard we asked. To eliminate most of the disturbances I had to use one of my little zoom cameras, in this case the Nikon Coolpix 8700, instead of a digital slr, which would have produced unacceptable clicks. Even so, after 3 acts a member of the audience in front of me requested that I stop. Therefore there were no photos after that, except during the applause. The opera was performed in an open-air roman amphitheater, the only surviving one with its original wall. The wall is acoustically very important, making it possible to get perfect acoustic with no electronic amplification whatsoever. It was a marvelous experience, and for me a very rare one. These opera photos were my most challenging stage photography experience so far! All photos were taken with no camera support or image stabilization mechanism.