Guillaume Lavrut was visiting the small French town of Aurillac with his wife and three children when he took this photo. The family were looking for souvenirs together and exploring the streets when they happened on a canopy of umbrellas. Aurillac is home to one of the world’s oldest umbrella factories and is regarded by many as the umbrella capital of Europe. For Lavrut, however, a visit to Aurillac is about returning home.
“My family are from there, so we go every summer. It’s so difficult to reach that we need at least a day to get there, but it’s worth it,” Lavrut says. Its peaceful, relaxed atmosphere offers something different from their homes in Paris and Nantes. “The capital is constantly bustling, and Nantes can be busy at times, too, but Aurillac is lost in the mountains, and nature is omnipresent.”
As his wife and children entered a shop, the reflection of the umbrellas in this puddle caught Lavrut’s eye. It had been raining earlier that day, but the sky had cleared and the sun was shining. He held back to capture it on his phone, later editing the lighting using the VSCO app.
“The perfect blue sky and the rainbow of colours reminded me of my childhood, of puddles we used to jump in,” Lavrut says. “It felt like I had found a little portal to a peaceful place.”
