Walk in the Razes area

A few weeks ago we went for a fairly long walk in the Razes area which lies south of Castlenaudery.
We drives many times through it on the way tho Carcassonne, but this time we want to explore it.
It had something very attractive, it's consist mainly of 'rounded' hills, fairly open countryside and very open views.

Pyrenees in background

Parked the car in a village on top of one of the 'rounded' hills we walked for a fairly long time until we came to a nice spot where from we could see very characteristic features of the landscape.

Where we sat to do our drawing

We sat fairly high up and looked down a valley and along the edges, where it did get steep,  we see strips of woodland, but then higher up, where it became less steep, there were the 'open' fields.
The bottom fields were mainly used for grass and if very open for mais, but the top fields used for wheat, barley and alfalfa. It is mainly a limestone area, so it can become dry, also we are in the South of France don't forget.

 

Also you can see that as we look south, the north-facing slopes are woodland,  because it is too steep and/or too less sun and facing the cold northern winds.

The trees were mainly just grey or dark silhouettes, apart from some few beeches with still their withered leaves on 

When we went further on our walk and saw an unusual shaped building with in the background one of those typical hill-fort villages of the area.

Then we walked further and as we walked fairly high up, we had fantastic views on the mountains with the different layers of landscape in front of it.

We walked for a short time on a plateau, an ideal place for sheep.

During such a walk there are so many observations and thought that one can't do justice in explaining it in a short post with only a few photos, but it gives you a glimpse.