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Village of Les Bondons (Walk 18)

The stony nooks and crannies of the limestone causses and gorges turn into flowery rock gardens as the pink moss campion, the creamy rock roses, white saxifrage and blue violets create a kaleidoscope of colour. Lichens and mosses cling to the more vertical slopes of the gorges. The causses have their own species of white potentilla and also an orchid called Ophrys d’Aymonin, which resembles a fly orchid – hunted for unsuccessfully by the author! Often used as barometers and attached to doors of houses, because their flowers open and shut according to the humidity, are the huge Carline thistles which grow on the upland steppes; unfortunately they are so often picked that they are becoming rare. The only bushes that survive the onslaught of the herds of sheep are the prickly blackthorn (sloe bushes), which tend to circle the shallow water-filled depressions called lavagnes.

If you want to discover orchids then walk up the rocky Gorges du Tarn (Walks 21 and 22) in May when it has just rained – the author saw more species in one day than ever before, including red and white helleborines, purple broomrape, birdsnest orchid and the rare spiky lizard orchid.