Puy Aillaud (trail route no. 19)

But what's the angler angling for? The brown trout of course! This is the mountain fish par excellence, with a streamlined body to withstand the current more efficiently and light brown skin speckled with black and red. It lives in cold, oxygen-rich waters. 

This small wood is a fragment of the riparian forest: natural forest growing adjacent to a body of water. Reduced everywhere due to urbanisation, this type of forest is made up of alder, willow and oak, and also poplar, birch and aspen, among others

Perched on a rock in the middle of the river, a squat bird with a short tail, brown with a large white bib, bobs up and down with his tail in the air. He then dives and only reappears a few moments later. This is how this bird hunts, diving into the water and then walking against the current along the river bed searching for aquatic insect larvae, small crustaceans or small fish, lifting pebbles with its beak to dislodge them.  

On the right, a stand of aspens with smooth, greenish trunks and rounded, crenelated leaves take on magnificent colours in autumn. The stem, or petiole, of aspen leaves is flat and twisted, so it can be caught by the slightest breeze making the foliage «quake» hence its common name, the quaking aspen.

Tandis que les kayak voguent sur les flots (!), d'autres en dessous s'accrochent ... Les larves de certains insectes sont aquatiques, employant toutes sortes de stratégies pour ne pas se laisser emporter par le courant : forme aplatie pour se glisser sous les galets, crochets, ventouses, filets de soie pour s'y fixer … Ce stade larvaire peut durer plusieurs années pour une vie d'adulte ailé très courte, parfois juste le temps de se reproduire …

The shrubby milkwort grows in the undergrowth. This creeping sub-shrub has glossy oval leaves, similar to box leaves. The flowers are white and orangey yellow. Common in the Alps, it grows in open woods and dry forests.

A little flock of rock sparrows can often be spotted around Puy Aillaud. This large sparrow earned its French name moineau soulcie, (sourcil meaning eyebrow) because it has a large white eye-stripe. It also has a dark head, a brown back with white stripes, and a white breast and underside striped with light brown. It has a small yellow throat spot, often not visible. It is a year-round resident.

Puy Aillaud is a permanently inhabited hamlet and the highest in Vallouise (1,580 m). This hamlet has preserved some beautiful traditional houses. 

Surrounded by a cemetery and with a bench installed to the front of its façade, this pretty little seventeenth century chapel has an air of peaceful tranquillity. Maybe to sit and watch the trail runners?

The route leads down a warm slope, where the downy oak reigns supreme. It is a small oak tree with a twisted growth habit and with marescent leaves, that is to say, they dry out in the autumn but remain on the tree all winter. It is called "downy" because the young branches, buds and sometimes the undersides of its leaves are covered in a fine down. It is a tree that grows happily on the warm dry slopes.

L’histoire de Vallouise est à l’histoire des Vaudois. Cette congrégation religieuse née à Lyon militait pour le dépouillement, la simplicité. Considérée comme un mouvement de contestation, elle a fait l’objet, à partir du XIIIème siècle, de nombreuses persécutions. Les vaudois ont alors dû fuir. De nombreuses familles se sont réfugiées en Vallouise où les massacres et persécutions se poursuivirent. Le roi Louis XI mit temporairement fin à ces exactions. En 1486, en son honneur, la commune de Vallis Puta fût renommée Vallis Loysia.