Thanks Mark, nice to see the spring is coming, even though it’s damp and muddy in places.
1 Like
Mark - how long does it take you to groom and clean Gigi after her walks ? 
I leave that to my wife, but it doesn’t take long because she (Gigi) has short hair, apart from the ears, which are a bit OTT (Anna Wintour bob).
Her predecessor was a white Maltese, who was a continuous grooming job, she’d return from a walk with half the forest stuck in her underside. Was always difficult to photograph, usually just a white shape with three black dots at the front end. Below, Issa at the Afrikaner Voortrekker Monument, having been smuggled in in a shopping basket, whereupon she shat on the steps.
1 Like
Our Annie, on going to her first Puppy Party at the vets in the UK, was about 8 weeks old and was the smallest dog there.
She was frightened to death by a huge St Bernard. Although he was also a puppy, he was massive and dear little Annie was so scared she did a pee and a poo in front of everyone.
We never took her back for a return visit. We were too embarrassed !
1 Like
Another Weds and another walk, this one along the south bank of the Lot, to the auberge in the next village down the river. It’s one my wife and I have done many times before and many photos from different seasons have been posted on here over the past two years, and so it seldom produces many new photos now. Today was no exception, but for very different reasons.
By coincidence, everyone walking today is in our foreigners trying to learn French in Decazeville class (so very little French was spoken). But what a fine walk! Unbelievably warm, sunny weather for the last week in Feb, so was able to give my aging trekking sandals one of their last outings before replacement (but not shorts, cos it was a morning walk with a lot of shade, tho’ was tempted..). But the reason for the lack of photos was simply that I forgot! Too much talking to new friends, explaining our local landscape through words rather than pictures.
The route is a cycle path edged by steep forest slopes on one side and the Lot on the other, it’s been closed off due to flooding and has just reopened, but there’s a stretch still closed due to dangerous trees, and the commune’s workers were out this morning, checking and measuring the flood damage that’s not only de-stabilsed many mature trees, but also ripped the tarred surface off the Lot veloroute. It’s an interesting example of the power of the river when it’s in full spate, it’s not just flowing fast, it’s shredding and rearranging the landscape. There’s also a lot of dead wood that’s been washed up on the path several metres above the river, and I’m tempted to pop over with my chainsaw before they clear it away. Unless the timber is large and of good quality, it’s left to rot back into the ground, but this is on the path so I reckon it’s fair game. Below you can see the fallen trees and if you enlarge the photo near the walkers, the remains of the veloroute surface.
The midpoint of this walk is the drink at the auberge at Bouillac on the north bank of the Lot and although I was disappointed they hadn’t yet brought tables outside into the sunshine, the weather was a good excuse for the first pastis of 2026. Drinking pastis in the south of France is one of those romantic tropes that I never tire of - here we are drinking pastis late morning on a sunny day in the south of France…
Below, everyone (and dogs) about to return across the Lot after leaving the auberge (and me remembering, to take a photo of something on our walk).
But, I’m sorry to say that I enjoyed our post-walk picnic in the sun on the south bank of the Lot so much that it never occurred to me to take any photos - good in a way, but not necessarily what one expects on a randos’ photos thread.
However, Melah on her first walk with us took plenty of photos and @TFJWM (aka James) might like to post some photos of their version of the walk, which would be an SF first - two accounts of the same rando…
Here’s hoping…
5 Likes
Glad is was such a nice day - looks fabulous. It was warm enough here that I got a quick 15 min lunchtime wander in just wearing shirtsleeves.
Thanks, we had 20°C shade temps today. Normally around this time of year, we drive down to Spain to get some Spring sun, and as a result I never prune our trees at the right time, but this year we’re going a little later (just before the school hols) and i’ve pruned most of our trees this week.
1 Like
I drove down from Germany today, beautiful all the way, sun on the Black Forest, mist on the Rhine, mist on the Saône, sun and snow in the Massif Central, beautiful but blinding evening sun on the last bit of motorway.
5 Likes
Feels like a long way, is it? When we go south UK / south FR, it can take at least 4 days, often weeks. Not on motorways of course, except for the free A75, although sometimes I think we should avoid that too, one time we ‘avoided’ the Millau bridge and were rewarded by beautiful views of the emerging Tarn gorge. Brilliant.
It’s about 1000km and it certainly felt like a long way today! I usually do it on a Sunday so there are fewer lorries but no choice this time. I was very very happy the conditions were so good though, I have found myself in freezing fog in the Massif Central, snowstorms, icy roads, or pouring rain etc which are all horrible.
And on the way up in December the farmers had blocked the nationale and the motorway so I took départementales and crept along in a queue of disgruntled cars and lorries.
1 Like
I have swum in the Rhine, at Basel. Didn’t see any rhine maidens though, perhaps fortunately 
I always did that and drove through the town after retirement in the car, but once, in a hurry I did pay the toll. Heavy cross winds were shielded from me by a sympathetic lorry driver, heavy but not high-sided, who kept steadily alongside all the way across. 
I made sure to signal my thanks.
Complete contrast from several years before when positions were reversed. In my high-sided but heavy lorry I caught up with a Transit van really struggling in the crosswind. sometimes his 2 wheels even left the surface, so I overtook but slackened off to shield him. Couldn’t believe my eyes that he, suitable released, put his foot down and pulled ahead, only for the same thing to happen again. 
In the end I gave up and carried on. no idea if he made it.
It’s an excellent example of what the US cultural historian, David Nye termed the 'technological sublime: I never tire of going over it. However, our little poodle hates it and used to bark very aggressively as we passed each pylon(!) but these days my wife covers her eyes and we have peaceful crossings.
Don’t worry, I find if I take a lot, I’m forever trying to catch up with the rest of the group
This is cheating I think, because it’s just a walk back, at 4.30ish! from where we went for lunch. However I was struck by the colours of the view, lit by sunlight slightly filtered through some approaching cloud. I haven’t seen the path, the buildings, the remparts, even the sky quite like this before, I thought.
It reminded me of many artists down the years seeing (imagining?) a different painting each day, even each hour, and of @DrMarkH ‘s comment along the lines that a walk, the same walk, can be different each time, a link between landscape, light and time.
So, a different photo today.
4 Likes
I recognise that stretch in your photo having walked along it many times at differing times of the day and year.
Monet’s Rouen Cathedral series of thirty paintings of the cathedral’s façade is one of the best examples of what you describe.
After typing the above, I remembered that I was sat opposite one of my wife’s works, Solway Skies that consists of forty small paintings of the same view looking north across the Solway Firth from our previous house. The painting’s about a metre wide:-
4 Likes
This work reminds me of Gilbert and George for some reason!
1 Like
Multiple images within a geometric frame?
I suppose, in formal terms both make use of different forms of luminosity - G+G - C19th low budget stained glass church windows, and my wife, light and paint…
We were intending to repeat the walk from a couple of years ago that’s linked just below (tho’ I’m sure we’ve done it more recently, but..)
This morning we set off from Grand Vabre, a very old village in the Aveyron near Conques. Conques dates from the late 8th century, but Grand Vabre is older still and its earliest chapel probably dates from around 700CE. However we weren’t going there today, instead we were going to go up the other side of the steep sided valley of the Dourdou, which a couple of kms downstream flows into the Lot. The walk was to a another ancient chapel in the forest, nearly 600m above the valley.
Below: Gigi following James, whom she’s very fond of - she thinks he might be part caniche gris…
The Dourdou’s gone down a lot, but it’s still flowing fast
In Spring lots of streams run down through the forest slopes and feed the Dourdou
Looking across to the eastern side of the Dourdou valley
And meanwhile, we continue to gradually tramp up along the western side
A more panoramic view from a bit higher up. The tiny white blobs in the middle are the houses of Grand Vabre
All going along very well, everyone keeping up with the pace then - suddenly -
ACCIDENT!
MISSION ABORTED!
Melah’s tripped over a tree root and painfully damaged her wrist in protecting her head as she fell. Ruud has an opportunity to use his new First Aid kit, Melah gets a sling and we head back. Franz phones his wife to drive up for an emergency evacuation. A few minute’s later we make a rendezvous and Melah’s whisked off for medical treatment.
And the rest of us head back down to our starting point..
So not the best walk, but the survivors noted we’d still managed to walk for a couple of hours and have a good picnic afterwards.
Unfortunately we later learned Melah had broken a couple of bones in her wrist and is having an op tomorrow morning in Rodez.
So, I guess James will be doing all the housework and carrying all the shopping for a while 
4 Likes