Birth of a butterfly

Someone suggested me yesterday to write on my blog about the fields the israeli governement wants to confiscate in Gush Etzion. As often, I didn't know how to understand this suggestion, assorted with a link to a poorly written paper. Was it due to be some kind of blow, an accusation against a country dear to me, an accusation against my blog after a kind of partial reading, an attempt to reveal some conspirationnist fantasies, or a way of asking to me to criticize the paper (lack of sources, explanations, definitions, imprecision and confusion) and denunciate the dangers of such a litterature with ignorant or hateful readers?

I can send you a 300-pages long press and blogs review if you like, very revealing and analytical on the topic of the new antisemitism as it showed off this Summer, in french.The world can be very ugly, and this is mainly due to humans. As for me, end of the vacations, pay me if you want a book. My leisures will be more pleasant and apeasing, if possible. Fortunately, humans are not alone...

Here are my dear swallowtail friends, in pics and vids.
Enjoy!

Turning into chrysalis:

Emerging:

Wolves of Lozère

Interested in wolves?

Travel with me.

The Cévennes are a beautiful territory, with mountains, deep rocky valleys, causses, gorgeous villages and towns... very changing landscapes, just read Stevenson's memories from his travel with a donkey. They have quite an interesting history and corpus of legends and tales. The 13 inhabitants/km² (in the department of Lozère) have, with a foggy weather and a wide range of wide animal species, a few opportunities and excellent reasons to imagine and tell stories. The term "bête du Gévaudan" is well known... Between 1764 and 1767, a hundred persons where killed by what was said to be a mysterious beast. There were wolves, the shepherds didn't especially fear them, but the police hesitated: mass-murderer or huge animal?

Creating a wolves park in the Gévaudan was a way of repairing some moral grieves toward the extincted french wolves. I beg your pardon, they weren't extinct as they weren't a specie... and wild wolves reappeared from the end of the XXth C.

Gérard Ménatory, journalist for the daily newspaper Midi-Libre adopted 2 polish wolved in 1961 and settled them in his property close to Mende... He progressively gathered a hord, which he transfered in 1971 to the animal park created in 1962 in Sainte-Lucie. The park hosted several kinds of animals at the beginning, then only wolves from 1985. They were 26 in 1986, 86 in 1989, and the fondation of Brigitte Bardot brought tens more. They are quite loved and respected. The place is just great if you want to observe (but plan a stay a whole day!) naturally enough kept animals and to learn about them. There are 6 species, and babies.

Let's go...

From Montpellier, you can take the moutain small roads, if not car-sick, or the freeway. Advantage of the freeway: the Viaduc de Millau, the highest bridge of its kind in the world. But a freeway is like a train or a plane, it makes a trip virtual...

Free from the freeway...

The fog plays with the mountains and forests, hides and reveals red or beige cows and large houses of grey stones. It is green and flowered, guess why: it rains.

The restaurant of Sainte-Lucie welcomes you with a smell of alligot and 2 kittens, white and black. 

Panorama from the terrace:

As for the wolves, don't be impatient, listen, smell, look for bones, excrements, holes... Learn about their personnality and life from the guides... and visit the region if you don't spot them! Villages, markets, waterfalls and grottoes won't hide. If ever you need mates for a few days long trip with kids including some hiking with donkey and dromadary, a visit to the Vallon de Villaret, some degustations of cheese, honey, local cakes and else, let me know, I have a lot of ideas!

Little farmers

There is a lovely "farm" for children close to the village of Lansargues, at about 45 min from the historical center of Montpellier by car. The place is called "Les petits fermiers du pays de l'Or", or the paradise of Lansargues...

The pays de l'Or are not a french Eldorado, though children can play the gold panners on a pond and look for small stones painted in gold. The "pays de l'Or" is an area englobing various villages and cities maily on the north of the Etang de l'Or, a 30 km² pond whose occitan name, Estanh de l'Òrt, means "garden's pond". Big garden.

"Paradise of Lansargues" is a reference to the Petit Paradis, first farm of the kind in the surroundings. The second farm was certainly founded by some ex-workers of the Petit Paradis, whose aim was to do about the same, better.

Did they succeed?

I would be tempted to say so.

The fruits & vegetable garden is lovely, and one can pick up food. There are right now many varieties, esp. ancient, of tomatoes, eggplants, etc.

Children can have fun with coton, seeds, collect Job's tears as beads...

And the eggs of the local hens are delightfull. The shells have various shapes and tones, but the eggs are wonderfully tasty.

Everything is extremely well kept, with no water waste.

The animals are obviously happy. They have nice places, shadowy, clean - in a natural way. No traces of abnormal fights or feather pecking: fallen feathers came from the peacocks who losed their tails, growing chicks, ducks who recently nested...

The animals have space, and don't have to share it. They are no beggars: children receive a cup of animal food at the entrance and can't get more; the goats manage know all the ways of emptying a cup brought by a little human, but their appetite isn't excessive, they aren't allowed out of their "island" around/on/under the tables; ducklings don't accept to be caught for bread by tiny sailors; piglets don't finish ice-creams.

If the children want to get closer to the animals, they have to follow some workshop... This seems fair. Of course, everything is done in order to interest them.

Grown-ups naturally have to take a boat and row. Lovely life in and around (truits, etc.).

Kids will also enjoy riding Anis (down here), Ratatouille, etc... for 3€ (for the fuel - very worthwhile).

They will look for gold... and hopefully get a diploma, if not their name on the record's board.

They will get some activity, and learn a few useful rules like: do not jump on the slide before the previous kid lets the way free.

We didn't try fishing yet, but everything else was fine.
We felt as welcome as the insects of Simon's hotel. Your turn!