Capitelle

As you can see, the recurrent Tuesday promise of good weather exceeded its brief today. After the chill of yesterday, it was sunny, windless, and 25C. We did a walk around the village of Aragon in the Cabardès north of Carcassonne, which is famed for its drystone walls and capitelles (stone shelters built by shepherds). There are no flocks now, but walls, capitelles, and green ways for herding sheep have been lovingly maintained and restored by volunteers. Much better than last week's walk; parts of it through forest giving welcome shade, but much of the time in open garrigue with amazing views of the snow-covered Pyrenees (haze meant photos didn't do the view justice). The spring flowers are starting to burst out too; dwarf irises and orchids were in evidence.

The group did seem to be largely composed of the slowest walkers in the club, so it took us three hours to do 8 km and 120 m of climbing. There were many stops to drink water. And it was an hour's drive each way. Still, it gets me out of the house, and it would be a shame not to be out on such a beautiful day.