La Randonnee de Cuzy

Good grief, where have the days and weeks gone? How can it be a whole month since my last blog post? It did take me a long time to get over a horrible bronchitis, which had completely floored me, and the weather has been most uninspiring for much of the time we have been here at the cottage. But, yesterday the weather god was smiling on us, and gave us a very pleasant, if somewhat chilly Sunday for the annual Randonnee de Cuzy.

It is always such a pleasure to get together with our wonderful neighbours and friends and have a few hours walking through the beautiful Bourgogne countryside. We normally choose the shortest walk, just over 9km this time. The kind of half way refreshment tent is always at the top of our lane, and at least one of the 3 different lengths walks always goes past our cottage as well. Which is a great excuse for me to only do half the walk and spend some time with the doggies :-). Andy always finishes the walk with the others and then either jumps in the car and comes and picks me up for the meal in the village hall or I get a lift with one of the neighbours who didn't do the walk but partakes in the 'repas'. 

So, let me take you on a little womble through the countryside which I so adore.
We started at the Cuzy village hall of course, slowly winding our way up the hill -

We passed this sweet little cottage, deserted and slowly falling down now. It is such a shame to see these lovely old buildings so unloved and uncared for -

It could be such a sweet little holiday retreat for someone.

It was so lovely to see the sun shining through the delicate new leaves on the trees and hedges, their greens so fresh, so pretty -

I love seeing the wild orchids, which flower at this time of the year -

and these small wild violets are so very pretty -

Fascinating huge, ancient exposed tree roots, covered in moss, do woodland fairies make their homes inside? -

This was the biggest ( and scariest ) ant colony I had ever seen, there must have been millions of them -

It was such a pretty sight, large areas of the forest floor covered in masses and masses of tiny white flowers, like a lacy carpet -

Never forget the humble weeds, which make the wayside look so very pretty -

Whenever we came out of the woods, there were beautiful views to admire -

Miles from everywhere, in the middle of the woods, a rusty, thick old iron bucket. How many decades has it been lying there?

Half way, and oh those refreshments in the marquee at the top of our lane are so very welcome!

And I leave you with another pic of those wonderful wayside flowers which just shout SPRING -

Toodlepip, xxx