Randos' photos

We live on the “far left”, and yet people here vote distinctly “far right”, so I guess it is all relative :wink:

2 Likes


I am having difficulty loading the picture, apologies if it doesn’t work.

This is our favourite beach walk in the Bay of Audierne, always a little different ,always something interesting to see.

6 Likes

This one is going back a few years ! A great adventure around 50 years ago, accompanied through thick and thin by Wainwrights wonderful little book. `

6 Likes

Bet that cairn’s a tad higher now :wink:

1 Like

Good ol’ Wainwright ! :+1: :+1:

1 Like

The vale to counterbalance everyone else’s peaks…Today’s granny walk, with rainclouds for those who are yearning for them


6 Likes

Images from today’s walk from in the Lot from Capdenac-le-Haut Capdenac le Haut, un des plus beaux villages de France to Lunan Lunan, Lot - Wikipedia

Only 8kms, but took ages due to a a brutal descent down a rocky stream bed, followed by an idyllic walk through a wooded valley and then an even more brutal ascent up 200ms of giant limestone steps that were probably cut about eight centuries ago to bring produce up from the Lot. Feeling it in the knees this evening.

The first photo tries to show the snowfields of the Auvergne merging with the sky. It’s the other side of the horizon in @RicePudding’s photo of 3 March. Totally different landscape type!

Typical Lot Valley landscape above Capdenac Gare (recently mentioned by @JohnBoy )

Lastly the C12th church in the valley at Lunan -sunlight through the apse windows on a bright Spring morning - don’t normally like coloured glass in Romanesque churches, but this was magical only regret is that I had a phone rather than the Nikon.

Oh, and did the last hour of the walk in a Tshirt. Afterwards went into town wearing suede loafers without socks - next week hope to be walking in shorts - and if last year’s anything to go by, in a couple of weeks’ time I’ll be able to stay in shorts daily until mid-November…

4 Likes

Went on my first balisage with the hiking club yesterday which was interesting. Some very light clearing and alot of repainting markings on trees and rocks, and also covered about 12km, and of course a great group picnic. Some spectacular views of Cirque de Navacelles from afar.

8 Likes

Wow!!

And the Cirque itself is even more breathtaking as you descend down inside. Also a great restaurant at the top with amazing views down into, and across the cirque through enormous windows.

I must admit, after having taken enormous benefit from all the hiking trails, it felt very good to be giving something back :blush: A great system run by FFRandonée whereby they allocate certain routes to associations each year to help keep the trails maintained :+1:

1 Like

During the Confinement I created two routes above our house, one of these branches off an official trail into a mediaeval wood and isn’t officially marked or maintained. However, it’s a big improvement on the official route and this loop also adds an extra 4kms. Ever since my wife and I have walked it regularly to keep the bracken and brambles in check.

1 Like

Always attracted by the limestone cliffs down here :man_climbing:

We have done the C to C a couple of times, both the high and low routes. Full camping packs and in walking sandals to boot.

3 Likes

We walked today from Salles-la-Source , a village in the Aveyron between Marcillac and Rodez that’s well worth a visit if you’re in the area (salles la source - Google Suche). In addition to the scenery and architecture there’s a decent contemporary art gallery, a fascinating museum of traditional Aveyronnais arts & metiers and a good resto.

Lots of fine views today, but unfortunately mainly very flat light - every time I pulled out my phone , the sun went behind a cloud! Nevertheless, third consecutive week walking in shorts and it’s always a pleasure to walk in limestone landscapes - for me, they’re more complex and visually rich.

The area was very wealthy in mediaeval times and there’s lots of interesting, visually rich secular and ecclesiastical architecture clinging to the limestone cliffs. Wealthy Rodez families built summer estates here and their tiny terraced vineyards date back a 1000 years or more. In mediaeval times Marcillac and Cahors wines were exported to Britain through Bordeaux long before Bordeaux had its own wine export trade.

Today’s walk was only 12kms, but it was an up to the top on rocky trails, along, then down to the bottom of the valley via what I suspect was a mediaeval drain cum sewer, then up the other side of the valley on more rocky, highly degraded pack mule tracks and then down again to the village. As usual this evening am feeling it all in the knees…

The architecture merges into the cliffs - think Cézanne and the Cubists would have enjoyed painting here

Interesting defensive tower turned into a mini chateau

The main waterfall usually looks amazing in the Spring, when it gushes from the rock, but surprisingly it wasn’t that impressive today and this is one of its little sisters.

Have passed this church several times and it’s always been locked, but today it was open as they were preparing it for Easter. Because the area was so wealthy the churches were well endowed and the chestnut Virgin below is a very fine piece of work - I’d guess C17th, somewhere between the Renaissance and the baroque and I think the same anonymous Master has work in Rodez cathedral.

6 Likes

We walked a few km today along the Dorn valley.


Some floodwater still there, but once the rain stops consistently (it’s raining again now!) it will be dry again.

5 Likes

That endless succession of flat-bottomed cumulus clouds remind me of those I usually saw above the Lancashire plain when my plane was circling prior to landing at Manchester Airport.

The ‘history’ of C19th English scientific cloud studies and how they informed Constable’s landscapes is an interesting chapter of English art (well, perhaps to some…) But so much English landscape painting has actually been mainly paintings of skies. By contrast often when composing a photo in the Lot Valley the amount of sky is minimal and is there to indicate where the terrain stops rising above you.

Meanwhile here in the Aveyron, we’ve been having an increasing number of mackerel skies. @vero, what’s the French term for these?

1 Like

Today’s hike was a gentle 12kms in the SW Cantal from Saint Julien de Piganiol to the two Saint Santins, Three hours of up and down through rolling pastures, bit of wildish plantation, bit of bog, bit of rain and a very little bit of sun. Not ideal photo weather and using a phone, so this is just documentation on my phone, but it gives a bit of an idea.

Le Chapeau -crappy phone camera zoom photo in dead light.

A duck farm. Even when they have lots of outdoor space, the ducks huddle together…

I’ve posted before about St Santain - the village was split in two when the départements were created, and today the two halves of the village are not only in different départements, but in different regions! It being France, the village has two mariés and two churches (side by side)

Although the war memorial is shared, the Aveyronnais dead are on one side and those from the Cantal are on the other. Unfortunately today’s walk omitted the centre of the village because it was being lead by a local whose attitude was that you don’t wish to see all that stuff again (we’ve done this walk many times over the years)

2 Likes

What did the birds sound like? Look more like geese than ducks, tho’ as both used for foie gras so could be a extra large mulard duck…

They weren’t making any noise - these big ducks, that are smaller than geese, are very common around here and I think they may be derived from Peking ducks. Here’s a detail of the photo

Every bit of the duck is used - the producteurs even confit the carcases which are very popular - I imagine people add them to cassoulet type things. I order half a dozen cru legs from my local producteur and prefer to make my own confit de canard (less dry).

The long necks look quite goose’ish…all the better for the gavage which of course they enjoy. But farmed ones are pretty similar.