Flora, fauna and automobilia, with a reluctant nod to politics

Yesterday being fine, still and clear, we took off on our usual ride up into the Hautes-Corbières while our neighbours - well, some of them - were casting their votes in the second round of the législatives.  All three circonscriptions in the Aude elected one of Macron's hastily assembled party, with a Socialist runner up in our area, and FN in the other two.  Lagrasse, as always, voted for the Socialist.  I hope that Macron, thus strengthened, will be in a better position to moderate the UK's hopeless position in the negotiations that were supposed to begin today.  I commend to your attention a recent article in Der Bund.  There's an English translation knocking about somewhere if you need it.  Strong stuff, and unusually frank for a restrained Bern newspaper.

As we climbed yesterday, the air was full of sulphur yellow butterflies: we'd never seen so many.  The poppies are largely over, as are the aphyllantes de Montpellier, but there are still patches of orchids here and there, the occasional yellow spike of verbascum and rather more broom than is compatible with comfort for one of the hay fever persuasion.  We'd hoped to make a circuit south to the chateaux, since the views from our usual stopping point between Montjoi and Arques were fabulous.  Our having for once remembered to take a bag of carrots with us, there was - needless to say - no sign of our friends the donkeys.   By the time we were down at Arques, however, the eyes were watering and the throat itching, so we elected a more direct route home, with Martyn at the wheel. 

Today we've done a shorter route, up to Carcassonne via the Alsou gorge and back via Capendu and the Congoust gorge.  The air is altogether murkier, but the route full of spectacle in the limestone gorges, so not without visual reward.

Our very winding routes have rather emphasised the car's shortcomings: very thick A- and C-posts, hence much ducking and diving to see what lunatic is hurtling round the next left-hand bend at us, and some tricky exits from oblique junctions.  The rounded front end makes it difficult to place it accurately in the lane without frequent reference to the door mirrors - and the left one doesn't adjust far enough out for a tall driver.  There's a flat spot the size of the Netherlands in the throttle response in third gear, which makes for rather jerky progress.  I'm not sure whether this is related to the gearbox or the turbo-charger.  One nice gimmick, though, is that, at the press of a button, the speedo display toggles between mph and kph, not that we need it here.  And with fuel consumption running at 60 mpg, one must acknowledge its good points.

Returning briefly to fauna, we have been hearing a hoopoe calling, usually early in the morning.  I keep meaning to get out there for a sighting, but so far inertia has prevailed.