A Walk to the Orchard

Christine left suggestions for walks in the area and one of them was to an orchard owned by them.  We were kind of lazy this morning - waiting for the bread truck which did not show up and also, watching for the weekly meat and sausage truck - also did not show up or we missed it.  So, after a croissant-less breakfast, we decided to walk to the orchard.  By this time is was quite warm and sunny but the map indicated the orchard was less than 2 km from home.  We headed out, hand-drawn map in hand.  Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn (sound familiar?) and after hiking uphill for a while, we realized that something was not right since we were supposed to be heading for a bridge over a river so we turned back in the direction we came and took yet another wrong path which also became uphill - wrong, then went back to the first wrong path thinking we did not go far enough.  There were some men working on construction so we asked if they spoke English or Spanish - no English but yes Spanish - yeah!  We showed him the map and he figured out where we went wrong.  Back we went down the wrong road for the second time and finally got on the right track,. It was a pleasant walk past beautiful vineyards and over the bridge (no water).  Finally, we rounded a bend and there were the orchards!

There were many different types of fruit trees, grape vines and nut trees.  We first spotted a tree full of tiny plums - about the size of cherry tomatoes,.  I popped one into my mouth and WOW - it was an explosion of juicy delicious-ness -  the best plum I have ever tasted!  I couldn't stop eating them until I realized that overeating on fruit could have consequences so I reluctantly stopped stuffing my mouth with these little purple gems.  We also tasted a pear, a peach and some grapes.  There were various kinds of apples and several types of persimmons along with the blanquettes (little white very sweet grapes) as well as purple ones.  Then we saw the almond trees loaded up with nuts.  Of course, we did not think to bring a sack but we will go back - Christine told us to help ourselves - they have such an abundance there practically year round that whatever we don't eat will fall to the ground and go back to the earth of this lovely organic orchard.

HERE'S A LINK TO THE REST OF THE PICTURES SHOULD YOU WISH TO SEE THEM.

Today (Thursday) we plan to visit Carcassonne.  Stay tuned.  Surely we will easily find it since it is only about 30 km north of Magrie.