Some hale and hearty walkers thought taking photos naff and stopping to look at flowers just ate into valuable

Some hale and hearty walkers thought taking photos naff, and stopping to look at flowers just ate into valuable walking time.When I announced one evening that I fancied a rare cigar I was greeted with howls of derision.”Walkers don’t smoke,” said Julia. Want a bet? As far as I know I was the only one to light up anything all week. Butby then I was determined to be perverse and shun the conventions. Just as cyclists daub themselves in multi-coloured reflective gear and high- mindedly gesticulate at thoughtless motorists, so fashion-victim ramblers jealously guard their equipment, continuously stepping in and out of waterproofs at the slightest change in the weather.Magically the mist cleared at midday to unveil the melting slopes of the Ruisseau d’Oncet, looking with their black and white sides like the flanks of a Friesian cow. The haul up to Lac d’Oncet took us through a field of deep snow where we slithered and slipped and had brief, tottering snowball fights.

At the lake we tucked into our packed lunches in the shadow of the observatory on the Pic du Midi.Sprawled out on the ground dreading Mike’s call back to the action, I narrowly missed squashing a wild gentian, its distinctive deep blue tube shaded by an overhanging rock. The wild flowers were wonderful: we saw azaleas, orchids, irises, violets, saxifrage and far more we didn’t know. There are 150 endemic plants there, ranging from the tropical to the glacial.Exotic butterflies bobbed about the meadows – testament to the the natural farming methods that prevail there. Bareges has even been called the butterfly capital of the world. Playful marmots scurried about the rocks as the griffon vulture with its huge wing span hung spookily above the valley. We thought we spotted a golden eagle too.Flora and fauna are one thing, but by the third day pairing up among the unattached human beings was taking its natural course.

Suave Donald offered lively Rosemary his superior bottle of red wine at dinner while he had hers; that seemed to seal the attraction as far as she was concerned. Later in the lounge he steered her delicately by the elbow towards two chairs in the corner, whispering sweet-nothings.Handsome Alan continually had two women in tow. Couldn’t he make up his mind or was he keeping his options open? Was it that they were yet to decide or couldn’t they get away from him? The paths towards these dogged romances were as circuitous as the trail up the Vignemale.There were those who would go home without a liaison under their belts, which was nearly everyone. Tom, a retired civil servant for ever dressed in a stubbornly cheery red sweat shirt, quoted swathes of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as we descended from the Lac de Gaube. A group of women frightened the cows as they ran through the score of The Sound of Music.

Nick looked, sounded, and had mannerisms so like those of Jasper Carrott that everyone was a spectator at a cabaret act when he was around. Terry, our man in the Serious Fraud Office, said he couldn’t talk about his job and then talked about it all week.At one point I watched with Roseanne, a psychiatrist, a riverside drama fought out between a snake and a pair of coal tits over control of the nest It got us talking “Being divorced is a kind of status symbol now,” she said “People use it to define themselves as victims. It’s the role they adopt for themselves in society.”"Mmm,” I said and walked on.Wednesday was a free day and most of us went to the thermal baths for a sulphur Jacuzzi. Napoleon’s soldiers used to go there to heal their war wounds, but unfortunately for us its medicinal waters eased only physical pain. We donned white robes and strode beneath the Roman arches, passing rows of glum senior citizens reading Paris Match, post-treatment.There were no late-night parties at the Richelieu; tiredness forced people off to bed early. After dinner the three leaders introduced the programme for the next day, and like barrow boys tried to outdo each other with exaggerated claims for their own walks.