This striped shield bug doesn’t exactly have camouflage which lets it blend in with whatever plants it lands on. There have been a smattering of records of them in England, the furthest north in Solihull.
Incising and sculptures representing women and fertility. The so-called Venus of Laussel (otherwise known as the Venus with the horn) and some of the other larger pieces are in the Museum of the Aquitaine in Bordeaux, the others in the museum at les Eyzies.
A bison, engraved on a piece of reindeer horn, licking its back, perhaps trying to soothe a sore spot where an insect has bitten it. Two other bisons, also on reindeer horn. These were all incorporated into spear-throwers.
Larger carvings, extracted from the walls of local caves, portray a group of horses and a pair of aurochs in low relief.
On the walls and ceilings of some of the caves and rock shelters in the neighbourhood, many, many portrayals of ice animals are still in situ. A herd of horses, in low reliefs getting on for the size of Shetland ponies; a life-sized relief of a salmon, so detailed that it’s possible to tell its sex and the time of year. One cave has hundreds of small incised drawings, which can only be reached by a long trek through narrow passages to deep underground. Another has the only polychrome paintings of ice-age mammals, the originals of which can still be visited.
I don’t remember ever having seen a crazy golf course outside an English seaside town before. Behind a bar in a small village in the middle of France, there was the full set of eighteen holes. The course wasn’t in use, though the equipment didn’t seem to me to be particularly old.
The area was in use: as a chicken run. Several happy-looking hens were wandering round, looking for things to eat. Other houses in the village also had hens wandering round at loose in their gardens.
Strutting round most proudly was this fine feathered fellow, coming right up to the wall directly below where I was leaning out of the bar’s terrace.
A minor road by the river in les Eyzies. A common wall lizard was basking in the sun on the wall, as they do. It saw me, but didn’t immediately shoot off to hide in a crack in the wall. It did start to move, but leisurely. Perhaps it realised I wasn’t much of a threat standing still some distance away, but it was getting in position to sprint off if I came closer.
A marbled shield bug poses by walking slowly over the marbled table top on the balcony of the hotel we were staying in at les Eyzies. There were lots of these insects on plants in the area immediately around the village.
These distinctive shield bugs are indigenous to the far east of Asia, but are now well established in western Europe. They have been recorded in Britain, but, as yet, not quite as often. They have also reached the United States, where they are spreading from the east coast.
The table top is marked by what I’m almost certain are fossils. If so, it is not a true marble. Possibly it’s a polished limestone, and just perhaps from a local rock.
ADDED: it seems that while we were away, there have been press reports that this species is poised to invade Britain. From what we noticed of their propensity for fast breeding during a few days of fairly casual observation in rural France, I’m not surprised.