France in Focus

I read somewhere that 29th Feb, 6pm, is the official closing day of the hunting season? Sorry for the awful photo, but this little chap should live to see another season unless the countryside is riddled with "last day" hunters today. They were in our top field last evening, but the donkey must have scared their dogs away - and anything else in the vicinity! He's very good at chasing out any hunting dog (do they call them hounds here?) if they stray into his paddock! I took this photo from an upstairs window - that (believe it or not!) is the garden above our house - I like to think we make it easy for wildlife to hide, and difficult for hunters! I don't care about tree damage anymore, it's survival of the fittest here.

Looking forward to some gun-free weekend walks for a few months. Wish I could make that happen for certain other places in the world that are still being massacred.

Free at last, free at last!
At least until next year.

The countryside beckons once more

Oh goody ! Husband was just asking when the season ended. I looked it up last year, but can't remember all the dates as there were several, depending upon what was being hunted.

So happy to be able to walk in the woods again - if the mud ever dries up.

Indeed!

Last Christmas (I gave you my heart - no stop it!). No, Christmas Eve 2022 we had an incident of a beautiful stag that ran across our lower fields, thrashed through the river for a while, jumped a couple of fence lines, in blind panic because he had somehow got electric fencing tape caught in his antlers. (Not our tape - no idea where he'd picked it up from). He jumped into our field that had three horses in it at the time, so of course they went berserk. Then he got caught in the hedgerow. Thankfully the guy with horses in the next paddock heard the commotion and immediately called La Chasse. I was nearly tempted to try and free the poor fella, as he was lying down and giving up - stupid woman, really bad idea, wait for the cavalry. Nearly a dozen or so hunters arrived on foot - having parked around the corner. No guns in sight. By now the stag had managed to jump into the undergrowth, but was still caught up. The hunters traipsed in to see what they could do. They've obviously done this before, as they managed to all hold the stag down while someone cut the tape off. Then the stag thundered away through the woods. I said to the old hunter who was standing with me at the gate "He lives to help Santa for another year!" Very emotional - but I'm so glad they didn't just resort to shooting the handsome beast.

I wish I had the number of the hunters I ALWAYS see on our street each Winter. We had a large sanglier in our garden a few weeks ago. We got lucky when he departed on his own after we opened our portail (which is the only way he could have entered - when portail was open). I was told, by a neighbor, that if he hadn't been able to find an easy way out, he would have destroyed fencing to force his way out. I would have happily called a hunter if I'd had a phone number.

That would account for all the gunshots that I can hear today.

It is indeed at 6 pm tonight in Dordogne - for other département put 'fin de la chasse' + dépt name or number. As far as I know, it varies according to area.

Stops today in 03 except for Sanglier.

How pleasant to read of positive chasse experiences for a change! Maybe we've just been lucky here in 47 but we've never experienced any unpleasant behaviour on the part of chasseurs, quite the contrary. Admittedly, we're not great ramblers, don't have time or inclination, but all the fields and woods around us are hunted and never had a problem. I was saddened recently to see on a forum that shall remain nameless, someone who obviously knows nothing about French hunting practices sounding off with his personal, totally anti views as though they are the only ones possible. Quite vicious and utterly ill-informed on the rôle the chasse plays in maintaining healthy levels of wildlife
Apart from anything else, isn't it sensible to have a contact number for the Président so you can let him know when one of the dogs is wandering, lost?