Man and boy

Another lovely day today so, since rain is forecast for tomorrow, we headed over the hills to the next valley north from us. On the way we stopped at a little roadside shop for picnic ingredients and spotted a sign up to the Serrabone priory, so headed up there for our lunch. We ate outside the abbey, which is one of your classic 11th/12th century southern french buildings on top of a hill. It's very easy to get blase about these 1,000 year old buildings when there are so many about (or as K would say "what, even older than Nana?"). I have to say I'm getting to enjoy these hunters' lunches: no picnic baskets or cutlery, just bread and saucisson sec with a hunter's knife to cut everything. Today we had classier fare with the addition of some fresh goat's cheese and apple juice which tasted suspiciously like cider, kept the kids happy though.

The priory, which was delightful inside and out - I'll put some pics on flickr and put a link up when I get a sec - also has labels on all the plants in their extensive garden. Here the main vegetation on uncultivated parts of the hills is the Garrigue - just scrubby bushes and small trees on dry rocky, steep hills. the smell of it, with the herbs and juniper, is hot, resinous and spicy and utterly unforgettable. They say that most of the red wines down here carry that smell with them too. Anyway, I had never been able to properly identify the main small tree in the garrigue on this side of the mountain, but today found out it's the Quercus Ilex. Makes sense: it looks like a small oak tree (quercus) but with holly-like leaves (ilex).

Anyway, enough of this botanical mystery-solving, I hear you cry - what's the shot? So, we headed on into the Conflent valley properly and, once through the lovely town of Vernet-les-Bains which we almost lived in we headed (on foot) up 2km of sheer rock face to the famous Abbaye St Martin du Canigou. Now these monks weren't joking about sacrifices for faith. I mean this path was so serious that they had to put a chapel half way up (so you can pray for strength to make the rest of the trip? Or for those who just couldn't go another step?) It was hot today and that, with the 100 foot drop offs and no handrail made for a very treacherous journey for a mother with a fear of heights and two clumsy children.

Anyway, you've caught me getting off the point again. Once we got to the top we, obviously, found the abbey, but also the abbey cat who was very friendly. Now Mr B is allergic to cats so, on the journey back down the hill, refused to hold the hand of anyone who'd stroked the cat. C didn't take this too well and was rather upset at not being able to be with daddy. As you can see parental concern overtook allergic fears and peace was restored on the hill. So here are my lovely boys.

What I really wanted to say today was thanks for all the lovely comments on yesterday's random drive by blip. Maybe I should have put that at the start instead of making you suffer all this chat before your thank you....

Edit: some shots up on flickr now if you're interested to see more.