France: Azay-le-Rideau and Cassis Prints

Azay-le-Rideau is the first. It is one of the earliest of the French Renaissance chateaux, built on an island in the Indre in Touraine in the 1510s, and it is the one people remember because it appears to be standing in its own reflection. The Martins draw with a clean, precise line, which suits a building of that period particularly well: the symmetry and the detail of the stonework are the whole point of it, and a looser hand would lose them.

The second is Le Port, Cassis. Cassis is a fishing port on the Mediterranean coast east of Marseille, tucked under the limestone cliffs of the calanques, and the harbour with its coloured houses has been painted by a great many people over the last century and a half. It is about as far from a Loire chateau as France gets.

So the two prints between them cover the two Frances that most British visitors actually go to: the river valleys and the chateaux in the middle, and the working Mediterranean coast in the south.

Both are printed on archival paper with fade-resistant inks, so nothing yellows over time. Each has stayed in its wrapping since the day it was bought and has never been hung or displayed. Sizes suit a standard off-the-shelf frame and mount.

These make good presents for people with a particular association with a place, which is usually how French subjects sell. If there is somewhere in France you are after and it is not one of these two, it is worth asking - the catalogue is larger than the website.