hiking

Last Saturday, since I was not walking around the Convention Center in DC, touring endless posters and listening to endless talks, I took a hike around the Gergovia Plateau. This butte overlooks my house in Aubière when I look across the yard to the south, and is purported to be The Place where Vercingetorix defeated Ceasar way back when.

Today there's this cherry orchard on the northwest slope. The slopes are divided into small farm plots; on top there are several acres of public space, where they have the medieval times reenactement festival every August, and we go blackberry picking.

A bit of country road.

On the south side, you can see several villages (in fact, the trail goes through one of them) scattered around, near and far. The entire country is covered with villages. France is not really an urban nation.
A bit of the St Verny vineyards.
Auvergne isn't usually known for its wines, but some of the local vineyards are really coming up in the world. They've planted Gamay grapes here, and I like the colorful label on the bottles - more of a California style than the traditional two-tone photo/drawing of the 'chateau'. Next time I need wine I may well give it a try!

And some horses on the western slope. At this point I was about 3/4 of the way around, so 13km, and was starting to feel it in my feet. A shame the last 2km are all asphalt! they're the worst, once you're feet are tenderized from the distance. Next time I should make it all the way around and still have feet ready for more. But it's only the second hike of the season. This weekend & next week I hope to do a lot more.
.

Ciao!

.