Yesterday I popped in to the local authority offices at the Mairie in Quillan to pick up one of their newly produced topoguides covering 17 walks across six ‘zones’ around Quillan. Inside the front cover there are credits to four individuals whose work helped make the topoguide possible and I was delighted to realise that I know three out of the four through my various networks, including one of our neighbours, and two from the walking group I belong to.

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Last week’s Monday walk, usually an all-day exercise requiring some fairly strenuous effort and a packed lunch, was unusually a half-day loop, ending at a local auberge for a communal New Year meal.

Starting and ending at Belvianes-et-Cavirac, it covered much of the territory signposted as part of walk number 4 in the topoguide: Sentier du Pic de Couirou et de l’Amour Vert. It was also guided by the indomitable Yves, a former road worker, who has been instrumental in forging and maintaining many of the tracks in the area and is one of those credited in the guide. It’s a great sadness that he is losing his sight to glaucoma and starting to find it difficult to keep up mountain walking.

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To complete the four-hour loop and still make lunch at 1pm, it was an early start, with the reward of views of a spectacular early morning sunrise, complete with rainbow. Well worth the effort to get up and organised, and not too inconvenient as I had to drop Nicholas at school just around the corner anyway.

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Fortified by coffee and gateaux offered by the auberge, we headed off up through the hillside village of Belvianes and into the pine forest, easing into the walk at a steady pace on well-worn trails. I do love this kind of walking, although you still have to watch where you put your feet in case of tree roots or slippery pine needles.

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Quite quickly, our small amount of climbing was rewarded with great views of the hills, including another perspective on the ‘three quills’ of Quillan across open pasture.

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A little bit further on, and with the benefit of a little more altitude, we started to get a sense of the surrounding countryside including bird’s eye views down to Quillan and beyond. A fellow French walker observed that, despite living here, she never fails to be astounded by the magnificence of the region.

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It was a mad scramble up what were little more than goat tracks to the summit of Couirou. I believe Yves may have been responsible for identifying that track… “Il est fou, lui,” observed a fellow walker, with wry and fond humour. At the top, the 360 degree views are breathtaking and worth the effort.

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Down the other side on a well maintained zig zag track with a somewhat kinder gradient, we ended up at La Forge. It’s possible to go up and back that route as set out in the topoguide. Our neighbour who works at La Forge advised later that he was responsible for the maintenance of that track. There’s a lot of work involved in keeping the network of tracks maintained to an accessible standard and most involved are volunteers.

From there, we crossed back over the Aude to walk along the river and through Cavirac – now familiar territory from several walks in the area.

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And finally, a well-earned lunch – watched over by a wild boar. Because if you’re going to walk in these hills, and eat in this part of the world, that’s the company you’re going to keep. Unfortunately sanglier was not on the menu.

I think everyone was as hungry as a boar after all that climbing, which was just as well as there was plenty of good food and, in true French form, we didn’t roll out of the auberge until well after 3pm, having made short work of an aperitif, entree, main, dessert and coffee – good value at 16 euros a head.

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I think I’ll need another circuit or two to walk all that off!