More specifically, photos of seven different wildflowers, four different butterflies and a couple bugs to present a survey of what was blooming, flying and crawling along this six kilometer out-and-back trail along the Verdon River in the town of Allos, France, a gateway town for Mercantour National Park about 100km northwest of Nice. Date 6 June 2026, elevation 1425m.

The Verdon is 166.5km long, with its source in La Foux D’Allos, about 11km to the northwest of Allos, and is best known for the Verdon Gorge, its impressive canyon about 100km to the south. In Allos it’s fairly narrow, fast-running (at least during this particular weekend in early June 2026) and cold.

Included are a few more shots for context, including this view of the Roche Cline, a mountain stabbing the sky at 2415m (7923ft), that’s visible from most points in the Verdon valley around Allos.

It’s a pleasant, easy and flat walk mostly along the Verdon, beginning in the leisure park’s parking lot on the northwest corner of town. It initially follows a gravel road that narrows and eventually crosses with the Boucle des Fées, or Fairy Loop, where small panels share local legends of fairies, gods, goddesses and princesses – mixed nicely with real local history. Those stops are along smaller loop trails that circle through dense vegetation and stands of some impressive large trees. It’s a pleasant diversion of innocence worth indulging in.

As always, if you think or know that an ID is incorrect, please let me know in the comments or via the ‘Get in Touch’ tab above.

First up: Butterflies..

The lead photo above, an Almond Ringlet. Below a Speckled Wood, Southern Heath Fritillary, and two shots of a Black-veined White.

Next: Wildflowers..

Next: Bugs

This is a foam shelter formed by spittlebugs, possibly the Willow spittlebug (Aphrophora salicina), that were creating these foam shelters all over this large shrub. Its live larvae live in in the foam. Looking at this now, I wish I’d have taken more photos.

.. And a Few More

Photos from 6 June 2026