Tag: nature

Etang de Cistude

Today we thought we’d try and find some wildlife habitats further from home and drove a few kilometres to the Étang de Cistude. (Cistude is, apparently the European Pond Tortoise which, I assume means European Terrapin in proper English.) Here

Posted in 2011 Autumn Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Exploring Bellebouche

We are camped beside the étang de Bellebouche, one of the larger lakes in La Brenne, which lies in between Vendœuvres and Mézières-en-Brenne. What I didn’t realize on our first visit here seven years ago was that there are a

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Le Parc Naturel Régional de La Brenne

Rarely do I use such long titles but in this case it’s pretty much enforced since that is the glorious full title of this, our first main stop. The tail end of our first week has been advertising bad weather

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Black Beauties

My main quarry on this trip was a dragonfly I’ve been wanting to see all year; a Black Darter (Sympetrum danae). They aren’t scarce nor do they have a particularly restricted range, being pretty much all over the northern parts

Posted in 2011 Summer Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Odo-nutter Network

Now, look, I’m no great fan of management B.S. Darwin knows, I have to suffer enough of it in my time. One of the worst aspects was attending professional functions and being asked to “network” with others. That used to

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Scary Spiders

Not that Franco and Francine are prone to getting stuck in ruts, but we’ve headed for the New Forest yet again. The scariest aspect of this trip is that Satan’s Little Disciples are on the loose from their sanity-preserving schools

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The Pinail Trail

Last year, whilst trawling a few fellow dragonfly enthusiasts’ websites, I discovered an interesting looking nature reserve in France called La Réserve Naturelle du Pinail or the Pinail Trail for Anglophones. Of the 90+ species of Odonata in France, this

Posted in 2011 Spring Tagged with: , , , ,

Space at a Premium

Last year farmer Luc’s lake was not looking healthy enough for his liking. Most of the fish in it had died and much of the lake’s surface was covered with weed. Mind you, it did support a large population of

Posted in 2011 Spring Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Shrinking Violets

Yet another pair of Homo sapiens subspecies brittanicus arrived this afternoon but this pair was attempting to disguise itself as subspecies gallicus by travelling in a French registered car pulling a French registered trailer tent. It’ll soon be time for

Posted in 2011 Spring Tagged with: , , , , ,

La Prise Reprise

About 32kms/20mls north of us in the Montagnes Noires is la prise d’eau d’Alzeau, literally the place where water is captured from the river Alzeau. It is the beginning of La Rigole. We’re familiar with the word rigole from the

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