Our trip to the forest of Col de Grenouze

This morning we took a ride way into the country to a place called “Col de Grenouze.” Col de Grenouze is one of my favorite places to visit as there is a big forest where we usually collect (depending on season) mushrooms, blueberries (June and July) and chestnuts (Autumn season).

Since living in France for the last few years I found I really like three places; Riverie (where we live) and its surrounding area, Col de Grenouze and the Camargue and their surrounding areas.

On this particular trip we didn’t find mushrooms as it was not very warm or sunny. The ground was moist as we have had lots of rain and the skies remained grey. I did pick up a few blueberries to make blueberry muffins. (blueberry muffin recipe)  I’ve also made blueberry ice cream during the summer. Unfortunately we were late in the season so our findings was very little…. but enough to make some cupcakes.

I notice there were a lot of holly trees throughout the forest. Some trees already had their berries but not ripened yet. 

We didn’t find mushrooms except for yellow fungi. This fungi was constrained to a small area. I’m always amazed at the many varieties and colour of mushrooms. 

 

                  A rather large beetle resting on a blueberry plant.               

                 

This is Iris chewing on a stick. This was her first time visiting this forest, and she went absolutely bonkers. She kicked me a few times as I was sitting on the ground, and jumped on me as well. She is a very hyper dog.

This image just shows you how really green it is within the forest.

The small plants that are growing around this stump are future chestnut trees.

Five minutes drive away from where we were are fields and fields of wheat and other grains. I love the look and colour of wheat.