In keeping with the last two years of visiting the local large towns at Christmastime with my brother, this year we headed to Perpignan, the largest town in the Pyrenees Orientales department. Perpignan is not far from the sea and is part of the plain of Roussillon, the Catalan part of the department. It's not far from the Spanish border with Catalonia.
Being larger than Narbonne and Beziers we found parking a bit of a pain - there are plenty of underground car parks, only they were not very well signposted. We started off walking along beside the Christmas market, which wasn't very interesting as it seemed to be 90% either food or jewellery.
Behind the market stalls was the little river Basse, which runs into the larger River Tet on the edge of the centre of town. There were still quite a few plants flowering in this mild southern town.
There is a covered food market which we had a quick look at, and a drool over the various olives....
... and all the dried and candied fruits!
A bit further along the river we came to Le Castillet, which had a big wheel next to it, which I had hoped to have a ride on, only we never found ourselves back here again later on.
Le Castillet is a 14th century red brick gateway tower and fortress. At one point it was a state prison, but nowadays it houses a museum.
I was impressed by these red marble pavements!
This beautiful C14th building is La Loge de Mer - the Sea Lodge. It was once Perpignan's stock exchange, then its maritime tribunal.
Opposite is this statue with a red marble surround. It was the planting which caught my eye!
One of the places we had hoped to visit, an ornate hotel, was unfortunately closed on Mondays, so we headed to the Indian restaurant which we had chosen as the only one in a central position. Sadly, it was crap. We were told that as it was 1.30pm (late in France for lunch!) we could only have the set meal. The chicken curry had the same sauce as the veggie curry and the lentil curry. None were nice. It's a shame as we've had some really good curries in France - when we can find an Indian restaurant!
After lunch we headed uphill to the Palais des Rois de Majorque - the Palace of the Kings of Majorca. Way back in time Perpignan was a part of Catalonia and in 1276 it became the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca. A fortified palace was built in the gothic style which was completed in 1309. Perpignan did not become a part of France until the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659!
From here on are Keith's photos as my phone was running low on power.
Below, the Great Hall.
All but this room were empty, which was a shame. This was the Queen's chambers, but the room was closed. K got this photo through a glass window. There was an interesting narrow passageway which linked the King's chamber with the Queen's so they could avoid the main passageway and prying eyes!
Here and there were some original wall paintings.
One of the two chapels.
Back in the town, a bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) flowering - in December!
I'm suffering again with my hips and after walking to and from the palace and walking up and down steps, my hips and knees were killing me so I couldn't manage to visit anything else, so we headed home. It is a real nuisance - my tendonitis had got a lot better before our trip to Italy which was good as I suffered terribly during our Spanish holiday. However using an alpine stick does help a lot with steps and rough ground, only I didn't think I would need it in Perpignan - now I know better.
As we only really had a whistle-stop tour of the town it is hard to say what I thought of it (especially given our awful lunch!). So far I much prefer Narbonne out of the three towns. Next Christmas I hope we get a chance to visit Toulouse, which is a much bigger city than the previous towns we have visited; in fact it is the fourth biggest city in France. So far we have been to its airport multiple times and to Ikea on the outskirts so after six years it is time we headed to 'centre ville'!
I was very interested to see what the Galbe valley would be like later in the summer, and K didn't need much persuading, so we set off up to the mountains on the 9th August. There are a lot of photos in this post so you'd better get yourself a nice cup of something hot or a glass of something cold, and sit down to scroll through!
We had been hoping there would be some Apollo butterflies around, but it was not to be. Never mind, it was still as exciting up here as it had been seven weeks earlier.
The first thing we noticed were all the people around! I really hadn't expected that many, but by the time we got to the car park (down a long unpaved road from the hamlet where we engaged 4 wheel drive - it reminded me of driving in Fiji!) and started out on the walk, other people became a bit more sparse and didn't stop me from taking photos of butterflies etc, thank goodness!
Despite having dried out somewhat, there were still plenty of different wildflowers about. In the sun the vast majority were Knapweed and Scabious - always good for attracting butterflies and pollinators.
Below on the left is a really attractive Pink - Dianthus hyssopifolius or the Montpelier Pink. In the other pictures are Knapweed and Achillea, but with a pink variety as well as the white, which was rather pretty.
The patch above was a little field that hadn't been cut for hay, and was alive not just with the wildflowers but also Skippers. I saw Small Skippers and Essex Skippers, and even this mating pair on a Knapweed stem, which I think were Essex Skippers (Thymelicus lineola) but it is hard to tell.
In this picture I believe the top photo is a Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) (red tip to antennae) and the images below is of an Essex Skipper (black on underneath of tip of antennae and a bit more black around the outside of the upper wings).
However I have no clue what this interesting moth is! I saw a couple of them, buried into flowers.
Despite some of the grass having been grazed, there were still plenty of wildflowers and Fritillaries galore flying about. The one below I think is a Knapweed Fritillary (Melitaea phoebe).
This was the best picture I could get of this Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia).
Sometimes you just can't help getting an annoying blade of grass in the way; where butterflies are concerned you just have to put up with it in many instances if you don't want them to fly away! This is a Dark Green Fritillary (Speyeria aglaja) which I have only seen once before in the Eyne Valley, which is not too far away from here.
And this is a lifer! The High Brown Fritillary (Fabriciana adippe). Now what was I saying about annoying blades of grass - or stems - in the way?! 😀
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A lot of butterflies were flitting through the village but mostly too fast to ID them, until we came to a Buddleia growing in an overgrown garden which was alive with butterflies! Below is another Dark Green Fritillary, and there were also lots of Silver Washed Fritillaries which I hadn't seen in the valley of Galbe (though seen plenty of them before). Too fast for photos though! I also saw a Jersey Tiger Moth.
The highlight though was this Crag Martin (Ptyonoprogne rupestris - what??? how the hell do you pronounce that!!!) taking a break on a windowsill! I expect K got some nice photos with his camera and fancy lens, but I am more than happy with my own photo, as it was pretty close!
On the way back home we stopped beside the area where we had seen the Red Backed Shrike in June as the stony banks looked interesting with wildflowers and some butterflies flitting. These Pinks appealed to me as they were such a splash of pink here and there as we were driving past. They are Dianthus balbisii and grow in hot and dry places. Although I didn't get any more decent photos I saw here Meadow Brown, Clouded Yellow, Marbled White and a Glanville Fritillary, taking my Fritillary tally for the day to six, which is not bad!
All in all just as interesting here in summer as spring.
On our last day, after seeing the Marmots, we set off into the hills, towards the village of Railleu. On the way, we stopped beside some valleys to look at the wildflowers and also to check for Red-backed Shrikes, which had been spotted here before. I don't have any photos as it was distant, but we did get to see one through a scope!
Whilst the birders were finding birds for us, those of us who were interested in other things had a good look around.
Glanville Fritillary (Melitaea cinxia).
I'm pretty sure this is an Adonis Blue (Polyommatus bellargus).
This is a tiny broom growing out of a rock bank, called the Winged Broom (Genista sagittalis).
We stopped for a wander around the village of Railleu, a pretty little place perched on a rocky hillside. When a group had been here the year before (later on in June) on a butterfly trip, they had seen dozens of butterflies of about 20 different species, but not so when we were there! It was a nice place to wander around anyway, admiring both the wildflowers and the little gardens beside the pretty stone houses and church.
Houseleeks (Sempervivum) growing on the rocks, the host plant of the Apollo butterfly.
We ate our picnic lunch at Railleu and then our group split up as it was the end of our trip. Keith and I weren't ready to go home though; as we were already up in the mountains it would have been crazy not to take advantage of it!
So after lunch we headed off to Lac de Bouillouses which is a large lake at 2,000m altitude. It was busy though - hardly any room left to park and people everywhere! It came as a bit of a shock after our quiet couple of days. In the summer they run a shuttle bus up here from a large car park about 10km away which is very sensible.
There were lots of horses wandering around too, including a number of cute foals. We also bumped into Niall beside the lake, who had had the same idea as us!
A rather alpine looking hotel, with lots of yellow broom in the foreground.
These heavy horses look very much like Bretons to me!
As we were walking around the path, some Citril Finches (Carduelis citrinella) came to land on the grass right near us. I took photos zooming in as I clicked, but most annoyingly some people walked around the corner and scared them off. Grrrr!
Here we were able to see the Alpenrose (Rhododendron ferrugineum) close up.
As the track beside the lake turned rather rocky we decided to give it a miss and stopped at a few places downstream of the River Tet, which isn't much of a river at this point as it is regulated by the barrage at the Lac de Bouillouses, though it becomes one of the major rivers in the Pyrenees Orientales dept when it gets down to the plain near Perpignan. We once stayed at a campsite beside this stream in an environment just like this. I think it was one of our most favourite campsites. It was a shame that the grass had all been grazed here too so there were hardly any wild flowers.
