A walk around the other side of the valley

I have volunteered to keep company, though not to keep up speed or ability of someone who is SUPERFIT, aiming to walk the GR70 ... me thinks it will be a doddle for her but she will have 3 others with her. Not I at their pace!

My turn this week to choose a route and miraculously she has never explored it!
This the first of posts about today.
She puts the app on... we call it NORA as we ignore her telling us this and that!   NORA tracks our route and speed, altitude and steps!

When we were on the homeward strait, returning by the river, we found Purple Toothwort...
photos on next posting...  BUT, by a "particularly beautiful in Nature display" of them,we found a black beetle which I am convinced is an Oil Beetle. It is many years since I saw one.

 http://wild-life-in-france.blogspot.com/2015/03/violet-oil-beetle-in-france.html

I rather like the fact that females drag the male around for an hour after coupling! Poor things!

Really a very interesting article and beetle... There were bees around the toothwort but i don't know if they were solitary bees that the beetle likes to go home with!  One looked more like a bumble bee and articles say that these visit for the pollen.