Easter in France enjoying the sunshine: Part one

Every Easter I visit my mum and dad. Last year they were back home up in the Lake District  as Easter was late but normally they are in their pad in France (it's not quite as swanky as it sounds but it's very nice!!). Anyway having come home there are so many pictures I want to share it's only fair split up the posts. So here is the first post from a couple of days out.

 The first walk was along the river of the Lot Valley, near to where they live. 

 Wild grape hyacinths were pretty prolific - huge sways of them going up the verges 

The Lot Valley is surrounded by dramatic cliffs of limestone which have numerous houses built into the side

Here you can see fortification high up in the cliff. Further along there were holes in the cliff which we think supported a gallery so people could walk along the cliffs during war time (possibly 100 years war). 

Spring in France is as good as it is in t he UK with flowers popping up everywhere. 

I was very surprised to see bamboo growing as a huge forest. The stakes were about the size of my wrists. Sadly there were no pandas but the bamboo was used as stakes in gardens though I also saw a fence and a gate built from bamboo. 

I also spotted this ingenious face built from bottles which also doubles as a bird scarer

The following day the sun came out to play in earnest. Here is a typical French village. I love the medieval architectures

And here is Rocamadour - a popular tourist spot in the region

And here is the view from further up the hill. As you can see everything is built into the rock. There were a lot of steps but the views were amazing. More to follow over the next couple of days....