Above it All in Provence

The website Fotopedia.com has a sensational series of photos by French aerial photographer Frank Mulliez, depicting the dramatic perched villages of Provence. Start here and make sure to scroll left or right to see them all. On the same site, you may also enjoy Frank's photos of Corsica, Brittany, Upper Normandy and the French Riviera. Born in the north of France near Lille, Frank still lives up that way, when he's not flying around the world with his wife Caroline, renting planes and helicopters to capture these dramatic images. Frank is one of those lucky folks who found his calling early: he dreamed of flying helicopters at age 10; knew exactly what he wanted to do, careerwise, by age 12; started pilot's training at 19 and got his license one year later, while enlisted in the Alpine Hunters Division of the French Army.  Since then he has worked in Madagascar, the USA, Croatia, Sénégal, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Reunion Island, Mali and Tanzania, and spent much of the past two years hanging out of planes and helicopters over Kenya. "This year I'll be shooting in China and Bora Bora, which should be cool," he tells me. "But I particularly like Provence--I've been spending my vacations there for 40 years." To learn more, you can visit Frank's website here and see a lot more stunning Provence images here. To see some of his 30 books, click here; you can order them on Amazon or, if you'd like them signed, direct from the photographer. To contact Frank directly: frankmulliez@yahoo.com. Meanwhile, click the photo up top to see it enlarged in all its glory.

Photos: The perched village of Peillon, roughly 20 kilometers northeast of Nice, shot by Frank Mulliez in 2008. The photographer, who is 41, began his pilot training at age 19. Among the 30 books he has published are "La Provence En Plein Vol" and his most recent, the best-selling "Sublime France," which he describes as "4.5 kilos of my best pictures of France."