Poppies, simply poppies.

   As well as baguettes and berets, one of the iconic images of France is the wild poppy. The coquelicot.

Most years, they're magnificent but this year is an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular. It could be the unceasing sunshine we've had, who knows. Great swathes of scarlet by the roadside, vivid red patches in an otherwise green field, they still take my breath away. We stopped to take a shot of these on the road from Mirepoix to Manses. I've had fantasies about seeding my garden with them but evidently coquelicots only grow really well in newly ploughed soil.