Randos' photos

[DrMarkH]

Yesterday’s walk was on the steep forested slopes above Grand Vabre (near Conques).

Continual up and downing as there are many streams running down the sides of the valley and one has to go down to cross them, then climb back up the other side, then down again and so on. This made for a great walk but unfortunately not a great day for photography as the light was flat, you can’t see very far most of the time and then my phone’s battery expired half way through the morning.

There was a great deal of this sort of thing -

The high point of the walk (figuratively and literally) is the C9/10th Chapelle de Monédiès - which is hidden deep in the forest. its style is pre-Romanesque. My phone died at this point, so the external photo below is from the web

The interior is really primitive

And the altar is so simple…

It’s hard to walk anywhere around here without coming across an ancient chapel…

[DrMarkH]

@JaneJones

What I should have done perhaps is read up a bit more on German mythology

If you’ve got Simon Schama’s Landscape and Memory there’s fifty or so pages in Ch2 that weaves Kiefer and German mythology

[JaneJones]

@DrMarkH

Simon Schama’s Landscape and Memory

Had forgotten that! Dreadful memory lapse.

[DrMarkH]

Another week; another walk with lousy light for photos, so these are just documentation. Began at Port d’Agres on the Lot, which is where the gabarres (long, narrow shallow-draught boats) used to unload the stockfish from Bordeaux (wine went out, dried fish came back)

Walked alongside the Lot in almost freezing January temps for the first half hour and learned that up above the valley Domaine Mousset, one of our smallest local vineyards had lost its crop to frost for the second time in three years. Don’t know how they survive…

Eventually after a stiff climb through the woods we were up on the plateau and one could see a bit further than a couple of metres - and the sun came out!

After that a simple walk along the road to Chateau Gironde perched on a bluff high above the Lot. Each time I stopped to take a photo I got left behind…

Don’t know if this is in the Aveyron or the Cantal, but from the angle of that power line on the RHS, I’d suggest the latter - the soil there’s often so shallow that the poles fall over after a year or two.

Eventually the road winds back to high above the Lot, but the light remained too milky for a decent phone photo.

And then the Chateau ’ not super grand; but a spectacular site - that’s best photographed with a drone. This isn’t my video (I’d edit it to half the length, but it does give an idea of the site)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMspEqi0CV0

And unsurprisingly, there’s another chapel

It’s not very old by local standards, but the owners have worked hard to make it special in lots of ways; commissioning sympathetic Romanesque art that’s beyond mere pastiche

And out the other doors of the chapel you look right down on the Lot -

But then to get back to where we started from there was a knee-crunching descent down rocky forest paths.

[Ancient_Mariner]

Not much of a rando but we did manage a short walk this morning.

[DrMarkH]

Boggy after the rain?

This morning, we went to a plant fair in a nearby village. I rightly predicted that goings on in the muddy field used for parking would be fun to watch (we’ve got 4x4).

[Wozza]

Looks like a nice river for trout.

[Ancient_Mariner]

We dropped in to a marche de printemps this morning, but it wasn’t bad at all. Lots of wet long grass, but relatively little mud.

@Wozza

Looks like a nice river for trout

I’d like to think so, but suspect otherwise. There are fish around, but looked more like dace and roach.

[Ancient_Mariner]

Managed a couple of walks in the last few days, this one just around the village.

And this one to the source of the Yonne near Glux en Glenne.

Here’s someone throwing a log into water to provide fuel for Paris.

[DrMarkH]

May Day - but also rando day and seriously wet, so simply walking in the rain along the south bank of the Lot with some Dutch friends and their guests.

Minimalist sculpture?

Carl Andre? https://tinyurl.com/3xk7z838

Or Donald Judd? https://tinyurl.com/4vecseme

Below the mist our village comes into view…

A house in the woods…

The House of Sculls (Aveyron Aviron)

Oh buoy! (sorry for that!)

The weir at Bouillac…

More water!

More mist!

A very wet walk and had this in my head the whole time

The Ronettes - Walking In The Rain - 1964

[vero]

Alternative walking in the rain

Grace Jones - Walking in the Rain

[DrMarkH]

Thanks for that - great video!

Had Grace Jones somewhere in the back of my mind when I posted, but too far back to recall. Now remember I had her on my Walkman back in the day, forty odd years ago…

[JaneJones]

Don’t know whether this is common all over France but we are now in the Marche Festive season. So every weekend/public holiday one village or another round here has laid on walks. Usually choice of short 6- 8km, medium 12-15km, and long. Usually only around €6! And you get refreshment stops along the way, plus map and way-marking. And for modest extra € a lunch at the end. Our one is in June, and lots of people actually just book the lunch as it’s pretty good 4 generous courses for €14. (I know as I spend the day in the kitchen and at the sinks)

But it’s a way for us to find new walks. We are cheapskates, so like going the day before as the waymarking is in place and we have the walk to ourselves. So found a new path today.

Only had my phone, but if you look closely at the skyline Mont Blanc is peeking out to the left of the bumps. And the dog for scale with the orchids.

[Ancient_Mariner]

There was sunshine this morning, so we went up to the Cascade de Brisecou above Autun for a walk. The rivers were running really hard and the flow was much heavier than this time last year.

On the way back I could see the Arroux had burst it’s banks. Last week the river seemed relatively slow, but this afternoon it was high and fast, spreading into the meadows below the town. The footpath we used before to the Roman ruins was under water.

[DrMarkH]

I’ve linked this post to my very first photo on the thread cos today I did the same route but with a completely different group of people and in very different weather. It’s a circular walk from chez nous that my wife and I created during the confinement, that extends and greatly improves two of the official trails from our village. You leave the east end of the village via a steep path, walk west along the top of the gorge and descend via a very steep path followed by a magical mediaeval wood.

When we last did the walk, we didn’t see anything till we were right on the top as the Lot Valley was buried under hundreds of metres of mist. Today was perfect - our first dry day after the deluge, but not too hot - in mid-summer going up and coming down in full sun can be a bit of a slog.

Halfway up looking east…

The view from the top

The same view in February

Directly above our house - the river’s actually the colour of milk choc due to the rain - should be as green as the trees…

Half way down (the stragglers are somewhere out of sight)

Lupo leads the way through the woods, whereas Chippie gets in the way…
(no Gigi today - she’s swanning around the Dordogne with my wife and her sister)

Back down at the Lot and only a few hundred more metres to the finish!

[vero]

@DrMarkH

The same view in February

I have a big ol’ poster of the CDF painting in my classroom edited because my tablet changed the acronym and I’ve only just noticed

[DrMarkH]

Sunday again and another walk along the Lot to the auberge in the next village - much drier than last week, but flat light bad for photos - so once again these are just documentation:-

Earlier, elsewhere @JaneJones posted about battered acacia petals (not a new Islington based protest movement! ) whereas the ones on this path are simply downtrodden…

And anyway battered food is forbidden chez nous - tho’ nothing to do with me guv!

My wife walking this path every day with Gigi through the changing seasons has generated lots of paintings - here’s one of hers for a day like today. It’s about a metre high, it’s good, but I think they could be bigger with the dimensions of a door, so that they more intuitively evoke a portal into another space.

Winter came early this year…

Put me in mind of Peter Doig (10 points if you get that!)

Put me in mind of Ruskin’s super-detailed observational drawings of Lake District flora.

This walk’s always good, regardless of the season, weather or the light for photography - we’re so fortunate to be able to to do it every week - and I have an excuse for a 51 at 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning…

[DrMarkH]

Couldn’t join our usual Weds group walk so my wife, Gigi and self went off this morning from Bouillac, the next village down the Lot. Last did this walk in March when the landscape was still bare - now totally green and fresh.

Below, an elderly Citroën is trying to fool us into thinking it’s actually a ghost.

You can get to anywhere from Bouillac!

Have photographed this view of our village many times over the years, but in my previous post of this walk the valley was still waiting to turn green. Should really shoot this view in late afternoon…

After an hour walking up through the forest, oak gave way to silver birch, then wild flower hay meadows and finally wheat fields - we’re on the top!

Lot on the left, Cantal to the right, and the Aveyron behind.

Going back down the opposite side of the valley …

Back in Bouillac