<![CDATA[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.]]>

<![CDATA[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.]]>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 the 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

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/7ffffd52-84f7-4c28-8662-a1ecd29caf20/upon-leaving-château-de-peyrepertuse-bound-for-carcassonne-we-took-the-d14-a-narrow-winding-backroad-between-hills-cloaked-in-forest-amp-meadows-intermittently-punctuated-with-small-villages.RSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 02:51:38 GMTTue, 05 May 2026 17:18:10 GMT60