Curiosity Drive 🚐 on Nostr: Upon leaving Château de Peyrepertuse bound for Carcassonne we took the D14, a narrow ...

Upon leaving Château de Peyrepertuse bound for Carcassonne we took the D14, a narrow winding backroad between hills cloaked in forest & meadows, intermittently punctuated with small villages. One such village is Bugarach, on the outskirts of which is a 700m path to Pont Romain, a single-arch stone bridge across a limestone basin on the Roman road linking the village to Rennes-les-Bains (📷1). Although original was probably Gallo-Roman, it was destroyed in 1992 by flooding but faithfully restored the following year. What caught our eye was the trailside orchids, 3 of which were new to us. All native, first up is Neotinea ustulata | the 🔥 burnt-tip orchid, which can be found up to 2,400m elevation in the mountains of central & southern Europe (📷2). The aptly-named Serapias lingua | 👅 tongue orchid is found throughout the Mediterranean (📷3). Ophrys scolopax | the woodcock orchid is recognisably a 🐝 bee orchid given its morphology (📷4); it can be found in both the Mediterranean & Middle East. We also re-identified Orchis mascula | the early-purple orchid.

🇫🇷 #france #occitanie 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🏛️ #roman 🌸 #bloomScrolling