Walking From Paulmy

On Thursday 25 May I joined Joel, Denise and Jean-Jacques for a 9 kilometre walk from Paulmy, across the Eperon de Murat and back.

 

Californian poppies in the street.

The cemetery in Paulmy is proudly pesticide free and pro nature. To achieve this the municipality has mown lawn paths and sown grass between the graves. The perimeter walls have flower beds running all around them. Families maintaining graves are told they can only use savon noir (aka Moroccan black soap, made from olive oil and macerated olives), dishwashing detergent and lots of elbow grease (Fr. huile de coude). Bleach, white vinegar, weedkillers and power washers are banned.

Irises on a garden wall in a hamlet.

Broomrape Orobanche sp.

 

Scarce Swallowtail Iphiclides podalirius (Fr. le Flambé).

 

We met this long distance walker in the middle of nowhere, on the hidden path that runs along the edge of the Eperon de Murat. He told us he had retired in January this year and had done nothing ever in his life, just worked in an office, so he figured now was the moment if he was ever going to have an adventure or achieve something. He was walking from the French-Italian border to Saint Malo, having set out on 30 March and expecting to finish on 10 June. In the beginning he was doing 15-18 kilometres a day, now he was doing about 30 kilometres a day. He wasn't using the famous IGN Topo walking maps [link] because they cost too much.

We remarked on the stoniness of this field.

Narrow-leaved Flax Linum tenuifolium (Fr. Lin à feuilles étroites) and Common Bird's-foot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus (Fr. Lotier corniculé) on the Eperon de Murat.

Dyers' Greenweed Genista tinctoria (Fr. Genêt des teinturiers).

A slate bird on a post at a driveway entry. 

The house at the end of the driveway is a troglodyte cave and the slate has been amusingly painted to look like accumulated guano.

The buds of Early Star of Bethlehem Ornithogalum pyrenaicum (Fr. Ornithogale des Pyrénées). 

Buds like this can be purchased as a seasonal delicacy known as 'Asperges du bois' (Wood Asparagus).