We ‘do’ ruined castles here in this part of France. And last Sunday we Laroquais from the walking group ‘did’ one that was new to us.
We went off to the Aude, near Rennes-le-Château, for a long morning’s march and a final energetic upward scramble to Bézu and the few castle ruins that are left there.
I was going to tell their story. But then I found another blog to do the job for me. Follow the link! Some of the research here has been fostered by the – to me – unaccountable interest in Dan Brown’s books, but the page on Bézu is mercifully free of his influence.
I’d sooner simply share some of the photos of the day, many of them of the flowers we saw. May, as in much of Europe, is a glorious time for them. The dry, thin soil of this part of the Aude nourishes small, bright ground hugging plants: they show themselves off perfectly against a backdrop of alternately red and rather white earth.
I’m going to go on being lazy today. If you can name the flowers so I don’t have to, I’d love to hear from you.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 