Dates:

3 - 10 July 2010
Leader Mark Brown assisted by Jude Lock and Peter Derbyshire

Cost £795 / €875: five days guided outings, local transport included, seven nights half-board.
Accommodation is at the Hotel de Londres in Luz St Sauveur, all rooms en-suite, garden, riverside restaurant terrace.
Single supplements of £90 /€100 apply.
Travel to and from the Pyrenees is not included but we can collect from our local airports of Pau or Lourdes (RyanAir flights from Stansted and Bristol) or Lourdes railway station (TGV from Paris). Further travel suggestions can be found here.
If you are unable to make these dates we have two lovely apartments in Bareges (with swimming pool). We will point you in the right direction for the best butterflies, see our apartment pages.

Butterflies
of the French Pyrenees

A guided butterfly week with Mark Brown

Our guided butterfly holiday … a week for butterfly enthusiasts of all levels led by the entertaining Mark Brown, Mark is an expert on the butterflies of the Pyrenees, having observed and photographed in the local area for over 20 years. Back in the real world, Mark is one of the UK's leading classical record producers and in an earlier life was one of Monty Python's famous lumberjacks!

           

                                             Mark's superb picture of a Purple-shot Copper at St Justin

Mark Brown

Mark in action
Amanda's blue

Amanda’s Blue
Butterfly Week 2008

Butterfly Week

Enjoy the dramatic scenery of the Hautes Pyrenees with time spent at the Cirques de Gavarnie, Troumouse and Estaube, magical places of high peaks, crashing waterfalls, rushing streams — a grandiose landscape carpeted with alpine flowers.

Butterfly ethusiasts4



Butterfly ethusiasts7



Photos from our recent
Butterfly Weeks

 

During the week we will take you to many of our favourite places, mostly within the Parc National des Pyrenees; woodlands, hay meadows, high alpine pastures, rocky outcrops. We will visit a variety of altitudes to maximise the diversity of species.

We have been living, observing and offering wildlife holidays here for 23 years, nobody knows the terrain better!


Hotel de Londres


 



Hotel de Londres


 

 

 

 

 

Particular attention will be paid to the superb flower-filled hay meadows of the Bareges valley. It is a testament to the superb unspoiled nature of our local countryside that certain local meadows have produced over 40 species in a single afternoon. To date we have recorded 120 species in the Bareges valley alone. Of particular interest we should find Purple Edged Copper, Gavarnie Blue, Large Blue, Queen of Spain Fritillary and Clouded Apollo.

Purple Edged Copper

Purple-edged Copper
Butterfly ethusiasts2

Picnic at Gavarnie
High Brown Fritillary

High Brown Fritillary

All walking will be very gentle and the week should appeal to both experts and beginners alike. We shall also be keeping an eye out for interesting birds and flowers, at this time of year the alpine flowers are at their splendid best. We will enjoy helping you identify the many raptors including Lammergeier and Golden Eagle, and with a bit of luck we might even find a Wallcreeper and a Black Woodpecker.

Your holiday base is the historic village of Luz St Sauveur, a lovely little village in an area of great natural beauty. You must visit the fortified Knights' Templar church, the C9th castle, the lively weekly market. and treat yourself to a soak in the wonderful 'Luzea' spa baths. The hotel has a superb location on the banks of the river.

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