As the weather was so lovely on this day we decided to take a walk around the headland at Hendaye, which is right beside the border.
It's not our first time here but the previous time was pre Moho, about 13 years ago! I didn't see too many butterflies (sadly) on this walk, but the two I captured below show the difference between a Wood White (Leptidea sinapis) on the left, and a Large White (Pieris brassicae) on the right (I think! Small and Large are hard to tell apart in photos). Wood Whites are far less common butterflies.
Chateau Abbadia, which contains an observatory, is open to the public. We didn't visit.
Below on the left is Clustered Bellflower (Campanula glomerata) and right, a Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera), with my brother in the picture underneath. I was chuffed to find many Bee Orchids in the verges of the paths, especially as it was about a month later than I was seeing them in the south of the country.
Two Bee Orchids.
This is looking towards the town of Hendaye, with Spain in the distance.
Zooming in on this picture I can just see the little hotel where Keith and I stayed all those years ago. Now we have our own personal hotel! 😁
Rocks known as the Two Twins.
After this we visited some of the towns and villages which you will see in the next posts.
Here's a map showing where we came from (the desert) and the places we visited in the French Basque country. Hendaye is marked with a B.
Wow... SO beautiful, Mandy!!! The Whites were great to see since butterflies have been very few and far between this year. The Clustered Bell Flowers look like the Hare Bells (Campanula rotundifolia) I photograph in Flagstaff and the Bee Orchids are stunning! I look forward to your photos from the villages.
ReplyDelete(Marianne from AZ)
Hi Marianne and thank you! Glad you enjoyed seeing the butterflies - I was glad too as we had seen so few up to that point. Cloudy weather is not good for them! We have Hare Bells too, in fact various different Campanulas growing wild in the south and the mountains.
DeleteHi Mandy. The coastline and inland looks a bit like Dorset to me.😎
ReplyDeleteA Wood White, I should be so lucky. I love flower images.
Roy - yes it looks not dissimilar to parts of Brittany as well. Love coastline like this. Thank you!
DeleteBeautiful photos and views Mandy :) I just love Bee Orchids. Interesting to see Wood White and Large White photos. Wood White rare over here too and only occur in some areas. I've looked in Mortimer Forest for them where they do occur but still not seen one!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Caroline! I was pleased to see the Bee Orchids and in fact I saw loads of orchids during this trip as you will see later on. Hope you will find a Wood White eventually! :-)
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