Les Sentiers des Ochres, Roussillon

These cliffs are the old ochre works in Roussillon.  In the 19th Century natural pigments were mined from these hills.  

The disused quarries, called "Les Sentiers des Ochres", are now open to the public.  The circuit takes about an hour and a half.

First you descend the stairs into the bowl of the quarry.

The cliffs glow with intense reds, yellows and pinks.

Strange pillars of stone are left standing.  Perhaps the rock in these columns was not rich enough in pigment to warrant cutting?

Gorges de la Nesque

Yesterday we went walking in the Gorges de la Nesque.  Here we are resting at the bottom of the cliffs that we'd just dropped down to along a steep, narrow and twisty track.

This is the Nesque itself, right down at the bottom of the gorge.  In the height of summer, at this point it will completely submerge and only run underground through its gravel bed, which makes crossing easier.

... Lindsay and Ruth making the treacherous crossing!

This is the path back out of the gorge...

Another rest

For more pictures of the Gorges de la Nesque, including the little 12th Century chapel at the bottom, look at our Picassa album for pictures that I took last year when I was there with a group of guests. 

Spiky Garden

This is an allium christophii blooming in May in our Spiky Garden.  I've just found that its common name is Star of Persia.  I can see why.  I, however, having forgotten the latin name over the last year, have been calling it the football flower because its large, spherical flower heads are almost as big as a football.

Just next to it is an Acanthus, also in bloom.  Its tall, architectural spikes of flowers reach about 1m50 (5ft) in height.  And along side them are two red hot pokers...

I reckon it's pretty obvious why I call it the spiky garden!

I've planted the spiky garden to surround one of our shady pergolas.  Along with the acanthus, red hot pokers and alliums, I've mixed in several grasses, gladioli, agapanthus, rosemary and honeysuckle for year round interest.

At the moment, our antique iron day bed is under the pergola and the honeysuckle with its heady perfume is blooming too.  All of which makes this an ideal spot to put your feet up and chill for a while...

New Pool

So it's been some time coming, but here it is; our new swimming pool.

And very chuffed we are with it too!

It sits in the same position as our last pool, just adjacent to the house.  But it's one-and-a-half times as long - 12m or 40ft.

It's been finished since the second week in April, but we then had a lot of work to do in fixing up the garden to have the pool presentable for our first guests who arrived on May 4.

When it was finished, after the passing of various diggers, delivery lorries and a pile driver, our courtyard looked like this!

3 weeks, 12 tonnes of gravel, 5 tonnes of “clapisette” (a fine powdered limestone, from which our paths are made) and an enormous amount of hard graft from us and Debbie, and  it looked like this at the beginning of May...

If you look hard enough, you can see that the grass that Lindsay and Debbie had seeded only 2 weeks earlier was only just coming in and that the flower beds were bare.

This is what it looks like now.

I think we have the right to a little feeling of chuffedness?

Jerusalem Artichoke and Carrot Soup

Debbie made the soup, I Polloked it up!

Here's a soup that our friend Debbie made. It's simple but delicious...

1 onion chopped and fried in olive oil. Then add equal amounts of peeled and diced carrots and Jerusalem artichokes, fry a little more and then cover with water and boil until the veg is soft and mushable, then mush it. Add more water to gain your preferred viscocity, bring back to the boil, and serve.

I added drizzles of pistachio oil, to bring out the nuttiness of the Jerusalem artichokes, a little cream, to add a little richness, and a good grind of black pepper, for spice. It all looked very Jackson Pollock.

Jerusalem artichokes are called topinambours in France. They have a bit of a reputation as poor people's food here, as it was all that was available abundantly during the winter months of the war, so older people tend to shun them. They also have a reputation for causing flatulence! (Although we've never noticed the effect.) So another name for this picture is "Art for Fart's Sake"!

The nicest photograph of a polytunnel that you'll see this side of tomorrow (probably)

I took this yesterday evening, out walking our friends dog.  If you'd like to see more, you can in this Picassa album.

Hibernation Over

Hi.  We're back!  Nothing much happens over the winter apart from we knuckle down and get on with graphic design, legal consultancy etc.  None of which is particularly bloggable.

Actually it's been a particularly wet and cold winter, with over six inches of snow on the Vieux Port in Marseille at one point!  We got away skiing a few times.  A good snow year, that's a positive.

But the garden's stirring now and the Euphorbia seems first to have woken.

Expect Mimosa and Almond blossom soon and then the whole thing starts all over again. 

Things to look out for in the next few weeks:

Snow chez nous, skiing photos and our new pool!  (Just being finished, pictures at the end of the month.)