The Vercors is an area of limestone mountains on the Edge of the French Alps between Grenoble and Valence. It could be called 'a secret corner of France' as it was when I used to lead tours there for the Travelling Naturalist tour company. It holds so much more than just orchids. There are many other flower species including lots of Alpines, birds are frequent with species that do not occur in Britain such as Wallcreeper, Griffon Vulture and many more and there are Chamois, Alpine Ibex and Alpine Marmot among the area's mammals.

Within the Vercors, the Grand Veymont is the highest point at 2341m high while the stand-alone peak of Mont Aiguille at 1663m is perhaps the most impressive. The Alpine meadows can be truly stuffed with flowers but a long-held interest in the beauty of wild orchids drew me back there, with and without groups, time and again. In fact I visited the area 15 or 16 times and one client came along on nine successive years as he liked the place so much. As I have photographed so many wild orchids there, I thought it might interest some of you and so below here are just some of the 30 plus species I have seen in this spectacular location in late May or early June. They are shown in no particular order and certainly not in the approved botanical order. As you will see, there are some species which do not occur in Britain and others which are very rare in the UK.