Wonderful photos. Thanks AM 
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This afternoon a rather less spectacular, but probably colder walk. Dutch friends who’ve been renting nearby recently bought a derelict corps de ferme - house and six big outbuildings for €100K - as you might imagine at that price, it needs a bit of work. Anyhow that’s where we started from after lunch at their current place. Below is some of their new place:-
People are standing on the garage roof because that’s where Mira, who’s a yoga teacher with a big online following did a podcast class from yesterday in sub-zero temps. My wife went along and fortunately, despite my well-grounded fears, managed to complete the class without falling off the roof.
But today was less challenging, we were going to walk down to a ruined chateau, leave a couple of elderly Dutch people there (by their car) and then walk back up to the farm.
We started quite high up for around here c.600m - much of the Aveyron is a high slightly undulating plateau that’s dissected by the very deep valleys of three major rivers (Lot, Aveyron and Tarn) and their tributaries.
Of course, as usual with stopping to take photos, I soon fell behind, but at least it’s easier to catch up if you’re walking downhill.
And even easier still if they stop to let Gigi look at a horse -
Eventually Chateau Pagax (locally pronounced Pagas) our destination, or rather half-way point appears
Since we’ve been here, they’ve restored the chateau’s enormous barn, but I doubt the actual chateau will be attempted.
And, after that we had to walk a few kms back up another bloody hill…
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Not quite a rando, though I did have a short walk in order to take the picture - I’ve been testing a variable density filter to write a review, and here’s one of the pictures looking out over the local floods toward the cottage at Somerton deep lock.
Lock Cottage over the floods by Anton Ertl, on Flickr
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Eventually, another walk and another post.
This walk in the Cantal near the ‘double’ village of St Santin should have happened last Thurs, but I had a strange and splashy one day cold.
But this afternoon with a fine sky, was great for walking.
Preparing to set off, with le Chapeau in the background, which features in so many of our walks in the Aveyron and Cantal cos you can see it from almost anywhere. And no, I’d never before seen a Beemer that colour until I bought it, but it’s much easier to spot in car parks than our previous white ones (the photo’s been cropped to exclude nearby white cars).
Honestly, you’d think they’d never seen a cow before (tho’ Cor in the foreground is from Rotterdam, so maybe he hadn’t). Actually I’m being a bit unkind because the cow had three(!) calves and my culinary observation about that being ‘a lot of veal’ was not well received by all…
Above is an architectural rarity, a traditional Cantal corps de ferme whose buildings are now connected by a stone-built arcade and a loggia, while on the far right a former buron (circular cheese making building) further eschews architectural purity with a visually dynamic addition that puts me in mind of mid-Century Brazilian modernism.
Here’s a closer view, but the curvy modernist bit’s only partly visible -
You certainly don’t see many like that around here…
While on the subject of the exotic, just along the lane, there’s what looks like a Chinese fan palm wondering what it’s doing in a blustery Cantal field (Cantalese? Apologies for that one).
From here we go over a limestone outcrop where, later in the year one can find many varieties of orchids. But not in January.
However, today we’re going to view something unexpected and sinister, a scene perhaps not wholly unfamiliar to fans of Dr Who or Fifties and Sixties’ sci-fi horror stories - an abandoned scientific research station.
It’s late, so, to be continued…
Spoiler: - no Daleks - they’re all in Davos 
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La contination:-
Incidentally I think the building was a reception station for early telecom satellites, but we’d seen too many movies to want to explore. And in any case, thankfully the gate was locked.
And so, on we went…
This photo doesn’t really need a caption: it is what it is - a horse in a field.
But one can never be too sure that things are so simple because as I was taking the photo, a car pulled up and a lady, possibly the horse’s owner wound down her window, smiled and rubbed her finger and thumb together, so the horse seems to have its own photo rights.
We then joined a track that was obviously much frequented by the local cow population and things began to get very muddy, although not for Gigi , who weighs nothing and could probably walk on water.
Frankly, not the most interesting photo I’ve ever taken, but sometimes that’s just the way it is…
Actually, that’s not quite true, it’s pasture in the Cantal, even though it looks like a golf course…
A not very effective gate and Laurie pretending he’s not posing, but waiting for everyone else to catch up
Below, the cutest hen house -
But imagine if they built them like that for cows!
The bridge is unexpectedly inaccessible so we have to jump across the stream - hope it doesn’t go wrong as we’ve still a long way to walk…
Happily, the next one’s OK (apart from that dodgy handrail…)
Whereas the first half of the walk was striding across panoramic limestone plateaux, the second half is muddy forest trails with lots of streams - not quite Heart of Darkness, but one can pretend a little…
Another bridge, another photo - Gigi stops to pose…
Boots are going to need cleaning…
Only another 100m to Laurie’s place, at la Belonie bas, but I think dessous le Chapeau would be a better name.
But even though the walk’s nearly over, there’s still time for one more surprise - a lovely, delicate piece of stone poking through the chaux -
Lots of photos, but despite pausing for all these photo ops, this band of septuagenarians had done 11kms in 2.5 hours without otherwise stopping, so that’s not too bad.
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Lovely as usual but I have at last realised why I don’t do that sort of thing
It’s age restricted. 
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Terry Nation, some relative of mine, created the Daleks. Evil tho’ they might be, he would never have created a monstor so evil as The Orange Imbecile.
Photo of the stone - superb. Worth a 150 x 100 cm print, I reckon.
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Thanks - I do like big prints.
I also discarded the colour info and it looked like a photo from a hundred years ago. Sometimes one sees scenes around here, particularly ones with buildings, that don’t seem to have changed for a century or so.
We’re having a week on Tenerife - about half way through at the moment and hired a car this morning for the next few days.
So we headed north, first to Bajamar (pyjama as we now call it) and then Punta del Hidalgo, where we lunched and then walked.
The trail went down to a small river and then up into the hills.
Views were pleasing, and it was great to be outside a resort. Only thing was, the higher we went, the greater price we knew our knees would pay going down.
Eventually we reached some caves. Round the corner required more scrambling and we called it a day at that point. Officially it was 5k each way, though felt less.
Nice views looking back to the sea.
Not much of a rando, but good exercise for us.
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Well, that certainly looks a bit more exotic than our walk today (better weather too). In fact, I think the only thing our walks today had in common was that we also passed a similar pair of large agaves.
Photos to follow…
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… and here they are!
Fittingly, on the second anniversary of the thread starting we were revisiting one of the first two chemins. The walk from Bouillac, our next village down the Lot is probably the one we do most because it’s two minutes down the road, has some variety and is doable in all weathers and seasons.
From the village the road winds up towards the plateau, but soon becomes a track. Although 'track’s a bit unfair, as in mediaeval times it was probably by the standards of the day a very good road that connected the places on the plateau with the Lot, which was the main highway to Cahors, Bordeaux ad beyond. In thz background you can see the C15th chateau of the Bouillacs, with a much older square dongeon behind, that resembles what remains of their older chateau above our house from where the Bouillacs controlled the river traffic.
Higher up the valley is what I assume was a mediaeval watch tower from where one would have had a commanding view of the river.
Next we came to a cluster of well-built, modern chalets, with large terrasses overlooking the river. For some reason the owner thought they would be more appealing to tourists if he decorated them all with motor-cycle posters. However, these failed to impress my sister-in-law.
Meanwhile the photographer falls further behind the party…
Obligatory stop at the first viewpoint to take yet another photo from here of our little village, that for many centuries has lived between << Le Lot, le pierre et le ciel .>>
They finally stopped for the photographer to catch up - but where’s Gigi?
However, the photo provides a good record of a local mediaeval road surface - it’s unusually wide too, so presumably was an important route to the Lot.
Another, higher view of the village (don’t worry, that’s the last one).
As we climb above the forest into pasture, various sheds start to appear. This one’s a bit decrepit, but nevertheless rather satisfying -
Whereas this one’s probably slid a little too far into the category of the picturesque -
Further up, in usability rating, shed number three seems to sit somewhere between sheds one and two.
Finally after an hour, the climb’s over and we’re nearly at the road. Was expecting this stretch to be very muddy, but just a a few big puddles…
At the road, a conversation in Dutch -
About what, I’ve no idea, though whatever the subject, it seems to have been about ‘that big’.
The murky background scenery is SE Lot or SW Cantal - all looks the same to me, but I’m sure the distinction’s very important to the natives.
Setting off along the road, I was surprised at the amount of water in the ditches on the plateau
Spring’s on its way! Up here on the plateau things get more light than down in the valley and things get started earlier.
Something’s going on at the bottom of the hill - hope it’s not hunters, as they’ll be on our intended path and we’d need to turn round and go back the way we came…
Fortunately not hunters, but farmers swapping cattle - plenty to choose from -
Another addition to the shed collection -
Heading back down into the valley …
… with our destination in the middle distance murk -
Looks like a poodle has passed through here recently
But here there’s been something rather larger …
… and quite a lot of them as this rooting continued for a few hundred metres. The local hunt’s quite active in this stretch of the valley and the terrain’s much easier than around our village, yet the hunters don’t seem to be having much of an impact on the local sanglier population.
Have to be careful not to drift into another thread - anyhow just after this photo it started to rain so no more photos and we sped downhill in the direction of the auberge on the north bank of the Lot.
Bit different to the Canaries - tho’ I was also wearing shorts (first time this year)
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Beautiful photos.
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Thank you again for voyaging. I carefully examined every photo and have failed to spot the little curly dog. She must have gone incognito.
Probably due to a combination of grey poodle and grey mud / road.
However, if you click on the photos to enlarge them, you’ll she’s in photos 3,10, 12 and 20, and just off-camera in 14.
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Oh my! Yes. She is soooo tiny 
All of 3.5kgs (when wet).
I love this thread, it is so simple and yet completely beautiful, forum members sharing times communing with nature, viewpoints tranquil. And this is my first petite ballade posting, and I so remember @DrMarkH ‘s walk around Antibes, here is his view, posted in March last year as a reminder.
So here’s my pics from today, a sort of homage to the author of a brilliant idea for a thread which has resonated across the whole forum - walks and photography two great topics brought into one. My apologies though, these photo’s are on an iPhone 6s. And I am in shorts, but still had to put the jumper on come 4.40pm!
First (which was actually taken last after ‘the descent’ - the reinvention of Mark’s upward photo of the hill (bump really) - I was lucky to catch the France and UK flags together, extended in a brief snaffle of wind. There to commemorate some UK submarine defence of French forces in the WW2, and which hopefully remains a little beacon of hope to that polemic, remain.
Here’s the closest photo I have to the original above, unhelped by a cloud above and my finger hovering over the camera lens. I have a naked iPhone with a Suncase - you have to take the phone out of the case to use it, so one is gripping it (or another word) quite a lot.
I think this is the best I got as the cloud cleared away.
According to the toposcope (is that a real word?) the first / biggest peak on the left is at 3300m and the second, further right, poking though the clouds is at 3156m. The large white building on the left is the marina structure at Villeneauve Loubet, probably about 6Km away - it does tend to dominate the Bay des Anges, an interesting architectural debate might ensue…
And finally, back at sea level, on the return, as the sun set on a sunny day, I unleashed the iPhone from the suncase for one more photo, with the old town’s old Grimaldi palace, now the musee Picasso, still lit up, and just to it’s right, in the Port, the new replacement floating mega gin palaces, a a small nod to the dirigible behemothaurs of Ian M Banks Look to Windward.
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Thanks, not least for an all too generous post, but also for reminding me of Cap d’Antibes which I’m very fond of as a walker and an art historian.
Although we don’t live on the Med, apart from Paris, it’s where we go to whenever we leave the Aveyron. There’s so many places that are simple and yet so rich. Love them all, but for me Antibes is a bit more special. So thanks again for your post.
Apart from enjoying exploring Picasso’s haunts, I also like the idea of a long established research institute that’s looking for new species of trees and other fauna that will flourish along the Med as global warming develops.
PS. I’ve incorporated your suggestions for the setting of Picasso’s La Source into a book chapter I’m writing, but I don’t have a means of attributing my source of info, but obviously I’d like to be able to, so would be grateful if yu could PM the info.
Today a break in the rain meant we could do a Wednesday walk, but the problem was where? Many routes would be difficult with deep mud and/ or fallen trees, the chemins along the Lot are closed, and there were only three of us so it made sense to keep it local. Two options: one was our previous walk and the other one carved out of bits of our previous walk but one in the Cantal from St Santin de Maurs (which may have included bits of St Santin d’Aveyron).
Also Laurie, our local guide, had tendon probs so it was a bit shorter than usual, just 7kms, but very pleasant - helps stave off the February cabin fever. And, another opportunity (for me at least) to wear shorts in February!
So, as we walked a lot of this route a couple of weeks ago, today’s photos are fewer, but it was interesting to see how badly the lanes had deteriorated over the winter -
But once off the tarred road, it got a lot muddier
and, that’s water, not snow ahead.
The obligatory St Santin rando photo of le Chapeau - looks like Spring has arrived…
Then, for a while, there was a lot of this -
Next, via a long path full of very gloopy mud we made it down into the river valley
Followed the river for a km or so - some very bosky bits
Once a bench…
And all the way along the valley there was a lot of this
… most of the wood is left to rot down into the soil.
These guys help trash the paths
But the tractors do most of it.
And then we’re back at chez Laurie for coffee and cake.
A short simple walk but also a harbinger of longer walks ahead. Good to be walking in the sun in shorts, though Madame remains to be convinced -(her South African legs are unlikely to see the sun before July.)
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