Butterflies in Provence, June 2023

We're now going back to last summer, when we went to Provence in late June/July. Whilst I saw some great butterflies, of which seven were lifers (!), they weren't found all over the place. There would be a whole group of different species in one area, then nothing much in places I would have expected to see them, like wildflower meadows and lavender fields. You will see in some of the following photos the kind of habitat where I came across them.

The first two were in the Luberon at one of the many former ochre mines. I would like to think this butterfly is Chapman's Blue (Polyommatus thersites). The main difference between this and the Common Blue is the lack of the second marking on the underside forewing in Chapman's. This in itself doesn't always mean it's a Chapman's, as it could be a Common Blue without this marking! But given that I saw a number of them on holiday then I am counting it as Chapman's - which makes it Lifer no. 1.

There were a few other interesting insects as well as butterflies of course. I think this bug is a Red Assassin Bug (Rhynocoris iracundus). I didn't have my SX50 with me as I was taking photos of scenery where we were, so I don't have macros of this and the following butterflies.

Lifer no. 2 is this handsome False Ilex Hairstreak (Satyrium esculi), a butterfly of hot dry scrubland of southern France, Iberia and north Africa, where the larvae feed on Holm and Kermes Oaks.

Some days later going high up in the mountains near Barcelonette, on a rather chilly day, I came across a group of butterflies puddling. Not interested in the wild flowers, but just in this stony patch by the side of the road.

I don't know if these skippers are Southern Grizzled Skippers (Pyrgus malvoides) or Alpine Grizzled Skippers (Pyrgus andromedae), which both look alike to me. This spot was at 1,950m altitude and both butterflies can be found in habitat like this. Either way, they count as Lifer no. 3.

Also amongst these puddling skippers were several Mazarine Blues (Cyaniris semiargus) and a Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) on the right.

I was pleased to also see a number of Small Blues (Cupido minimus). In the picture below, the top left and bottom butterflies are Mazarine Blues, the middle small one is a Small Blue, and the other on the right, I'm not sure!

Moving further south to lower altitude at about 500m: on a walk from our campsite to the village of Entrevaux on a rocky path above the Var river, we encountered this Clubtail dragonfly - the Green-eyed Hook-tailed or Small Pincertail Dragonfly (Onychogomphus forcipatus). It is mostly found around rivers with stony or gravel banks.

Just outside the village was this butterfly on a rock. It confused me at first, then I realised it was a Comma. But every time I looked at the photo it puzzled me as it just didn't look right. On further delving into 'pale coloured Commas' I discovered it's actually a Southern Comma (Polygonia egea), which I didn't even know existed! Yet another lifer then, no. 4. This species prefers perching on rocks in hot dry places which is quite different from the regular Comma, and is found from South Eastern France through Italy and the Balkans to Greece.

One of the places we stopped which you would imagine would be full of butterflies. But - no.

At a layby near Mons in the Alpes-Maritimes at about 1,100m altitude, with a nice muddy puddle, that's where, again, I found many butterflies! This is an Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola).

Another lifer, no. 5, a False Heath Fritillary (Melitaea diamina). These butterflies inhabit damp flowery meadows, woodland margins and rides from low to alpine levels up to 2200m.

I suddenly noticed something brown moving - and knew what it was immediately. A Nettle Tree butterfly (Libythea celtis)! Click on the photo to see it larger, as it has a snout! It's not an easy butterfly to photograph when it's against mud. My sixth lifer of the trip.

I've saved the best for last. In this same patch of mud was a butterfly that I have wanted to see for a long time. Can you guess why? It's the Amanda's Blue (Polyommatus amandus)! I didn't even know what it was at the time, just snapped away, and was sooooo excited when I ID'd it. My namesake made it the seventh lifer of our holiday. 😁 Amanda's Blue is usually found at an altitude of at least 1,000m and inhabits meadows, heaths, grassland and roadsides across much of central and northern Europe, and feeds on various Vetches.

It's occurred to me that nearly every time I have seen butterflies puddling, it has been at altitude. Better minerals in the rocks in the mountains? It wasn't a lack of flowers, certainly. Food for thought!

Other butterflies noted - all these seen at yet another layby at under 1,000m, although flitting around the flowers in this place:

Great Banded Grayling
Meadow Brown
Scarce Swallowtail
Cleopatra
Brimstone
Clouded Yellow
Small Heath
Small White?
False Ilex Hairstreak (again)
Southern White Admiral
Marbled White

So all in all, despite only seeing butterflies of note in about five or six different places during a two week trip, the species encountered were rather special! 😀💜

Our first visit to Narbonne

Can you believe we have lived here for four years now and hadn't visited the main towns for our and our neighbouring departments? Up until now that is, when we decided it was about time we went to see Narbonne! We were lucky that it coincided with the Christmas decorations, which were done extremely well and were fun to see, adding to a thoroughly enjoyable day out.

There's plenty to see in Narbonne, which is only a smallish town (pop. about 53,000). It has a lot of Roman history so there is a large museum representing the town as it was during those times, which we will go to another time, plus another out of town Roman pottery production site.

We found free parking by the Canal de la Robine, only a short walk from the covered market, les Halles, which we headed to first.

The covered market, called Les Halles, built of steel and glass in the Baltard style have been open every day for the last 112 years! It was a busy place and jam packed around the eateries.

The fish and shellfish stalls interested me the most. I have never seen such a display of different sized prawns, lobsters, crayfish and shellfish before, nor have I ever seen such high prices! They can surely only sell to Michelin starred restaurants and billionaires!

Outside the market was a fun fair, making photography of the market building a bit challenging. It was nicely scenic having the canal in the middle of the town, and you can just see in the bottom left photo (click to make it bigger) that there is a lock there in the centre of town.

It was a mild day so we actually ate outside and were quite warm in the sun. This is the third Christmas-time out of four that my brother has brought us a warm day for eating outdoors! The fourth missed year was when he couldn't come at the last minute due to covid restrictions, not due to the weather.

This bridge below is the 'Pont des Marchands', a bridge with shops on it. A bit of a shame that the buildings look very modernised as the bridge itself dates back to the Roman era, when the river Aude actually flowed through here. Now the other spans of the bridge have disappeared into the adjoining buildings which have of course changed over the centuries. The water level, due to the locks, is also several metres higher than it would have been which hides more of the bridge.

The gothic front facade of the Palais des Archevêques or Bishops' Palace, with the keep on the left hand side covered in wonderful decorations! The Palace contains two museums which we didn't have time to visit, maybe one day!

Where the red platform is located is where a portion of the ancient Roman road the Via Domitia has been excavated and left open for everyone to see. This ancient road linked Italy to Spain. It was a shame we couldn't see it, but we will be back to visit the Roman museum so we can see it then.

On the left below is the entrance to the Pont des Marchands. There are some fabulous buildings in central Narbonne - I am particularly fond of the style with the decorative metal balconies.

From here on my phone battery got very low so the following photos are all Keith's.

After lunch we headed for the Horreum, an existing part of the Roman city. Horreum means warehouses or grainstores in Latin, and these underground tunnels and store rooms have survived largely intact, in fact were in private use for centuries so not really properly discovered and studied until the 20th century. They were classed as a Historic Monument in 1961 and opened to the public in 1976.

The map below shows the outline of the Roman city over the present day town of Narbonne, with the forum in red and the Horreum being the L shaped thing beneath it. The Pont des Marchands is the bridge shown spanning the Aude river, which is now the Canal de la Robine. Presumably the river was rerouted down another branch of it when the canal was created, as it no longer flows near Narbonne.

After this we visited the medieval cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Just-et-Saint-Pasteur de Narbonne) which is tall from the outside, but you don't notice just how astonishingly tall it is until you go inside... and strain your neck looking up! It was quite incredible. Also I have never seen a church or cathedral laid out in the same way - we could walk around the outside of the interior walls but there was another interior wall where the main part with all the seating was. A number of people including children were being blessed (or whatever, I'm not Catholic so don't know about these things) so it was a busy old place with plenty of priests and worshippers as well as tourists all mingling around.

View of the cathedral from the cloisters which adjoin the Bishops' Palace.

Then in a courtyard between the cathedral and the Bishops' Palace we came across this frame where you could get your picture taken. I had to drag my brother into the frame though!

The fun fair was coming to life on our way back to the car but no, we were not interested in having a ride on it!

I was really quite surprised that Narbonne was as beautiful and interesting as it was as I hadn't known anything much about the town. We have now made a New Year's resolution to visit Beziers (Herault dept) and Perpignan (Pyrenees-Orientales dept) this year as well!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a wonderful time over the festive season, and all the best for the New Year.

As promised, a few pictures of the decoupaged baubles on the tree. It’s only a small tree, but it’s amazing how many decorations are needed on even the three sides here - I’m thinking of doing some more baubles like this for next year, as the darker decs don’t show up very well against a dark tree.

I also need to get a larger decoration for the top of the tree - my little angel has always been fine on mini, table-top trees but looks a bit lost here! 😀

See you next year! xx