It was already on the planning for some time, but now the opportunity was finally there to go to the northern part of France! I went together with Jayden for two days. First we drove to the region of Lorraine for three different species and then on to the distribution range of Triturus marmoratus just under Paris. The weather was quite cold for the time of the year. On Saturday it was around 17 degrees with some rain and on sunday 23 degrees with a lot more sun.

22 June 2024

We had just two days, so we decided to leave very early. I woke up at 2.00am and half an hour later I picked up Jayden at his house. We first drove to a spot for Vipera aspis, where we arrived before 9.00am. We parked the car at the other side of the road and walked to the first tin plates. The first herp we found was of course Anguis fragilis. Then after we almost flipped all the plates we found a stunning Vipera aspis! After we took some photos we continued towards the second spot for Pelodytes. After another 45 minutes of driving we arrived at the second spot. We parked the car at the left side of the quarry, where we directly found some Bombina variegata. Then we went down the steep side of the quarry, because it was actually closed. At the edge of the first pond we spotted some more Bombina variegata and Pelophylax sp. I did some scoopes with my tiny net but couldn't catch any larvae. After lifting a lot of stones as well we didn't find Pelodytes. But when we walked a bit further there were some more ponds where we saw a lot of larvae of Pelodytes punctatus and after looking a bit better we found a juvenile too! Also I heard one calling Pelophylax ridibundus and on the way back we found some eggs of probably Podarcis muralis. For the third target we drove almost an hour to a very good flip site. Here we hoped to find Hierophis viridiflavus. After two hours of flipping we found two Natrix helvetica, two Coronella austriaca, some Podarcis muralis, juveniles of Bufo bufo and a small Hierophis viridiflavus! A bit further along the road was another spot with some stones where we found another Natrix helvetica and we heard one calling Alytes obstetricans that we couldn't find unfortunately. We still wanted to find an adult of Hierophis, so we drove to another spot nearby. Unfortunately in this area the old railway was replaced by a bikepath, but there were still some good spots for snakes. Again we found some Natrix helvetica and Podarcis muralis, but no Hierophis. The evening came and we decided to drive three hours in the direction of Paris to search there for Triturus marmoratus. Once arrived at the spot we walked to a pond nearby to look for larvae and maybe still some adult newts. I did many scoops but I only catched larvae of Rana sp., Lissotriton sp. and Triturus sp. We also found some juveniles of Rana temporaria, Pelophylax sp. and one Natrix helvetica. When we walked a bit further to flip some more logs we heard Pelophylax kl. esculentus and many Epidalea calamita that we couldn't find strange enough. Around 11.15pm we decided to move to our booked appartment in Melun. When we arrived at the adress of the appartment it looked a bit strange and we couldn't find it directly. We had contact with the owner via Booking messages and we had to click a link and pay another €150 deposit. Which was very much for the relative cheap appartment we had booked. Also we had to send our ID, but that wasn't possible to send in the chat. When we tried to call him we didn't get reaction. So after that, we called Booking and they said we maybe get (a part of) our money back. Because it was already very late and we didn't want to pay for another accomodation we decided to sleep in the car this night. First we went through the McDrive to finally eat something around 1.45am. After that we drove already a bit to another spot for Triturus marmoratus that we wanted to visit the next day. At a moment we became very tired so we decided to go sleeping at a truck parking nearby.

23 June 2024

The next morning we woke up at 8.15am. We started the day good with a French croissant and some coffee. The sun was shining as well for the first time! After breakfast we drove the last 20 minutes to arrive at our second spot for Triturus marmoratus. We started to lift some logs next to the car and already under the third log I found a beautiful adult Triturus marmoratus! We were so happy with this find and didn't expect it so early already! Our plan was to go home after finding this species but it was just 9.45am so we decided to go further. After taking photos of the newt we flipped some more logs and found a small Salamandra salamandra and Pelophylax ridibundus as well. We were full of energy after this finds so after a bit of hesitation we decided to drive all the way back to Neufchâteau to try it again for an adult Hierophis. After driving almost four hours back we did arrive at the good flipsite from yesterday, where we already found a small Hierophis. Another car was following us on the dead end road and when we were parking the car the man looked at us very strangely and turned back. That was very weird… We started flipping in the area but after a few minutes I was shocked by a dog that came out of nowhere and two people came as well. We heared the man saying 'privé'. So we knew we should get away. We decided to look a bit further along the road where we heared Alytes yesterday and come back later at the flipsite. There we started searching a bit and we found a Podarcis muralis. Then I saw the man coming again and he was calling someone. We were sitting and chilling a bit to wait what was gonna happen. The two people with the dog stayed looking at us from far away. I wanted to go back to the car because I didn't trust it, so we walked to the road. Then out of nowhere there was another man coming with his dog and he was absolutely furious. He was shouting loudly at us in French and it looked like he wanted to attack us any moment. We were saying 'we will leave' many times, but they didn't understand us... We were told via Translate that we would go to the prison if we didn't leave. After a few minutes the man was calming down a bit and we had the opportunity to explain it via Translate. After that they were all calming down a little bit and we could go. We directly drove far away from that place and at the end we decided to go to the second Hierophis spot from yesterday that was fortunately not so far away. There we parked the car along the road again and first we went to a place where Jayden found many grass snakes the day before. Now we saw a few of Natrix helvetica at the same spot darting away and a shed skin of it as well. Then we were split up to search for an adult of Hierophis. First I found some Podarcis muralis. Then after searching already some time I was looking into the grass for basking snakes and I spotted a large Hierophis viridflavus! Without thinking I immediately jumped into the grass and catched it. What a find! I called Jayden and he directly came running to me. The snake was very defensive, so I was bitten many times… It took some time before we had good photos but it worked out! After that, we released the snake and we walked back to the car very satisfied. Then it was time to go home, but we couldn't resist visiting the first spot from yesterday again to search for some more asp vipers. So we did that! After an hour of driving northward we arrived back at the spot where we found Vipera aspis the day before. Again we lifted all the tin plates. First we found many Anguis fragilis, two times Coronella austriaca and some shed skins of Podarcis muralis and Vipera aspis. Then we decided to flip the plate where the viper was under yesterday and it was there again. We quickly left it alone and searched a bit further for maybe some more plates and there were more that we had missed the day before! After flipping three extra plates we found two more smaller Vipera aspis, that had some really nice different patterns! On the way walking back Jayden spotted another Vipera aspis that was still basking at 8.00pm. So at the end we found four vipers this evening, which was a good score! After this we drove towards home. At the road we came across some foxes! The way back went very smoothly and just before 3.00am we arrived back in our hometown.