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Next day, I'm out early to explore. |
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This is the charming village of Montouliers. |
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another butterfly which came to rest on yours
truly. It is a Two-Tailed Pasha Charaxes jasius I am
reliably informed. |
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Margaret and I usually have a trip to the
beach at Narbonne plage to play 'golf' along the sand.
Great fun and fortunately no pictures of me
losing the ball. |
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Oh dear, Englishman abroad. Moi.
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back at the pool, swallowtail butterflies had
a habit of flying into the pool and getting stuck to the surface of the
water by surface tension. The
'pool boy' rescued them and allowed them to dry out in the sun before they
flew off into the setting sun or back into the water. |
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Ah, le shopping. Pour les poissons. Margaret
sorts out the order for a dinner party. |
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Margaret loves the fruit of the area, here
are some windfalls ripening in the sun before being transformed into home
made 'comfiture'. |
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Les Figs. For wearing or for le jam encore |
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I always have an 'adventure' day when I try
and extend the area which which I am familiar. Here you can see part of my
route which took me into the lower slopes of the Haut Languedoc. It is a
long steady climb from 100 metres above sea level in the valley of the
river Cesse to Rieussec at almost 700 metres. |
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Minerve itself is a tourist hot spot, but the
road I take presents a view that I have not seen before showing the huge 'pont
naturel' that carries the winter water from
the river Cesse underneath the limestone cliffs. |
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The cicadas make an astonishing amount of
noise as I cycle along. They only make a noise if the temperature is above
a certain threshold, I'm not sure what that is but as I cycle onward and
upward, the noise diminishes. |
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Two years ago, a forest fire burnt all but
as always, nature recovers. |
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After much pedalling along an ever
ascending road, I reach the top of the pass. Col de Cousses at 650 metres
above sea level is today's achievement. My chain is making ominous noises
of the 'I'm about to break' kind.
Fortunately, it hung together long enough
to get back to chez Margaret where it finally parted 10 metres from her
gate. |
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