Tuc de Bouc depuis Frenchendech

Farewell to Ruby with a brief stop in the city of Beziers (and alas the worst lunch ever)

It's been a pretty poor summer for the weather and we haven't got out into the hills very much at all, so we planned a walk to stretch the legs without being too tough. 

We (Breezy, Alun, Susie and I) departed Frenchendech and headed upto the Etang d'Arraing.

After a rest at the refuge and coffee, we continued to climb to the Col d'Aoueran, branching right to reach the easy summit of Tuc de Bouc...a branch left would have taken us to Pic Crabere (but we have climbed that before).

The summit of Tuc de Bouc with Pic Crabere behind and to the right

Pic de Mede from Tuc de Bouc

Easy walking over heather clad hills eventually led us to another col, Col d'Aouarde, from where a long descent eventually took us to the Chapelle d'Isard.

 

Retrospective of the middle part of the route on our descent - ascending the wooded valley on the left, reaching the barrage below the dark peak on the skyline, from there behind the pointy Pic de Mede in the middle distance, to reach Tuc de Bouc to it's right and on the skyline.

Inside the Chapelle d'Isard still being renovated after the roof was storm damaged in 2018 shortly before my last visit. 

From the chapelle we regained the path of ascent from the morning and returned to Frenchendech. A long day (8 hours, 6 1/2 hours of walking) with 25km and 1600m of ascent.