LAND OF SNAKE’S HEAD FLOWERS AND PURPLE HERONS

It’s late at night when I drive into Rosnay, a small village in the heart of the La Brenne regional park. In my traditional sleeping place, doubled up with hunger, I devour my last hunk of baguette, to the accompaniment of an ear-splitting gaggling. Great, the tree frogs are back en masse this year! And the pair of barn owls is also there, flying silently back and forth with mice for their hungry offspring. A little further on, a skittish pine marten flashes across the road. This feels like coming home. I end the day in style and fall asleep under a starry sky.

The night is short, to say the least: dreamland has only just begun when the first nightingales start their concert. No need to install a new ringtone for my morning wake-up call. Meanwhile, the first wisps of mist loom above the valley where I want to photograph later. With the light intensifying, it’s high time to shoot out of my proverbial slippers. Not much later the first pictures are done.

I’ve been coming to the Indre valley for years now, gradually getting to know the region better than my own back garden. The deeply incised valleys with the meandering rivers Anglin and Creuse in the south contrast starkly with the lowlying marshland in the north. In spring, the watercourses are covered with carpets of white water crowfoot. A mass of gracefully dancing meadow damselflies completes the picture. Someday I’ll come here just to relax. Something that unfortunately I’ve never managed to do: this part of the world has too much to offer. A bevy of amphibians and wacky reptiles, colourful butterflies, crazy mammals and rare plants – it’d be a sin to sit here on my lazy backside!