Work had turned into one of those blurs. Emails, a couple of passive-aggressive colleagues, meetings that all sound the same after a while. So a few weeks ago I did the sensible thing: navy chinos, white shirt, new sunglasses, the Panama hat, and drove off to the Vendée coast for the day.
Vendée isn’t the Caribbean, let’s be honest, but it did the job. It also gave me a good excuse to properly test the Canon 6D Mark II with the 24-70mm f/4L, a lens that gets a lot of stick online for being unexciting. By the end of the day I’d more or less come round to it.
First stop was Viellevigne, technically just over the border in Loire-Atlantique rather than the Vendée proper, a town I normally just drive through on the way to somewhere else. With a camera in the car and nowhere to be, I actually looked at it for once. There’s a little church between two old trees I must have passed a thousand times without noticing, so I framed that. Then I switched the lens over to its macro setting and found the hedgerows were full of wildflowers and insects I’d never normally spot. Funny how that works.
Next was the grand canal near Fromentine, though I’m still not convinced “grand” is the right word for it. It’s no Venice. The light was good, though: warm on the old ruined houses along the water, and across the road bridge there’s a row of fishing huts with paint that’s clearly seen a few decades of weather. The 24-70 handled both ends of the job well, wide enough for the whole stretch of canal, close enough for the plants growing out of the stonework.
By afternoon I’d made it to Port de Bec, where the oyster farmers work. Tractors were hauling boats in and out of the water, moorings creaking under the weight, the whole place busy in a way that’s hard to explain if you haven’t seen it. The autofocus kept up fine with everything moving around, which is really all I ask of a lens in that situation.
Last stop, and the best one, was the Passage de Gois: the causeway that goes underwater twice a day with the tide. It’s a great spot for photos, as long as you keep an eye on the water. I nearly didn’t, and came close to losing a sandal to the incoming tide. The contrast between the exposed road and the water creeping in was worth the risk, and the lens coped well with the changing light as the sun dropped.
The photos were only half the point, if I’m honest. Getting off the hamster wheel for a few hours mattered more. Fresh air, the sun on my face, a stretch of coast I mostly ignore because it’s on my doorstep. I came back in a better mood than I left, which was really the whole plan.
As for the 24-70mm, it earned its keep. Wide landscapes, macro details, a moving target at Port de Bec, it handled all of it without complaint. Next time someone tells me it’s a boring lens, I’ll just show them the album from this trip and let the pictures argue back.
Until the next one.