Wolves Wild

River mists in the mornings are a frequent and visually attractive phenomenon in the Vézère valley. Our brief visit coincided with the September Atlantic storms, so mornings had visibility reduced by heavy rainfall, not mist.

But there was one day when we were walking back from our evening meal when the rain stopped, and a light mist developed. From the level crossing, there was a view down the line to the small railway station. Its lights were all on, though the line was then closed for engineering works.

The mist was given an unearthly glow, tinted a spectral green by the station lights, and orange by those of the nearby road.

The cliffs that define the valley of the Vézère at les Eyzies. High up on some of the cliffs are square holes where beams were located for houses and farm buildings, some up to recent times.

A black redstart on a wall, looking around. It’s a young bird, which hadn’t yet learned the importance of caution.

We’d set off to walk along a quiet road to go to the much smaller village of St Cirq to visit the Cave of the Sorcerer. As we were beginning to get grumpy from the heat and the lack of shade, we came across this praying mantis crossing the road.

Chub in the clear waters of the River Beune, a tributary of the Vézère which as its confluence in les Eyzies.

A cricket or crickets warming in the afternoon sun while clinging to the wall of the National Museum of Prehistory in les Eyzies. A favoured spot: there was a cricket in much the same place on our most recent visit last month.