Tissage

It was May's fourth public holiday today. It's going to be tough doing without during June.

We went to the Sentier Sculpturel in Mayronnes; it's years since we last went there. The village is tucked away in the Val de Dagne, an oasis of green in the middle of the Corbières. The path is about 5 km long; some of the sculptures are permanent, while others are just there for a season.

It was a perfect day for it; overcast and cool at first, but the sun came out later. In spring it's not too hot, and you also get the benefit of the garrigue being in full bloom. Cistus, aphyllanthe, honeysuckle, orchids, aquilegia, and lots of other tiny bright flowers that I don't know the names of.We took a picnic lunch with us, and ate it in a sheltered spot with a view over the valley.

The sculptures are a mixed bag. Anne Sarda's woven sculptures are a temporary addition, but this was my favourite; it glowed in different ways as the sun moved in and out of the clouds and shone through moving leaves. It was hard to choose a photo, but this shows almost the whole structure. It was also serendipitous, as we realised that the "string" from which she made these was exactly what we need for an element of this summer's art event; it was clearly made from cut-up T-shirt fabric. Another group of people were also admiring it; I got a bit fed up of them repeatedly cooing "C'est vraiment chouette !" but since they were clearly knowledgeable, S asked them about it. "It's called lirette," one of them told him. "You can buy it in bulk from Portugal." How fortuitous that they happened to be there when we were! We'd never heard the word before, but at home Mr Google rapidly turned up some online sources for it.

My next favourite sculpture was Le Cri (spare blip) -- perfectly situated on top of the world. I've made an album on Flickr of the rest -- do have a look if you've time. I also couldn't help photographing loads of flowers, which I added to my garrigue flowers album.