Monika Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 Last Sunday, while we were staying in our barn in Swiss Normandy, the hunting season started, there was much shooting up and down the valley and blowing of horns. Does anybody know what they are hunting, all we have seen in our garden is one deer and red squirrels, and you never see any dead animals in the road? Also another mystery, down the lane from us is a house with a white van, where lots of smoke came billowing out (wood smoke) through a small chimney at the top, when we had a look through the back window there was a huge wood fire burning in the front part of the van. Does anybody know what that was?Thank youMonika Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN_S Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 I live in a small hameau in 11 (Aude) and we have serious sanglier hunters here who hunt 3 times a week in the season. They don't seem to hunt deer although there are lots in the locality, and I have to say that they do a lot of hunting for the numbers of sanglier they get! Either it's too dry or too wet, both affect the scent left.The sanglier do much damage in the fields by tearing up the ground and can also trash maize crops quite badly so much so that they are often asked by the mairie to hunt a particular area to try and stop the crop damage.In our little valley they killed about 100 last season which tells you how many there must be. A bear was shot about 6 weeks ago not far away as it was killing domestic pigs. They of course would normally be protected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaligoBay Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 "In our little valley they killed about 100 last season which tells you how many there must be."I thought they were bred specially and let out at the appropriate hunting times? Maybe not everywhere.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boghound Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 Thank God it's started again. Bagged my first expat of the season yesterday. The ****** put up a game fight but succumbed in the end. Used the excuse that he posted a lot on the LF forum (whatever the Hell that is?) but it made no difference in the end. Just kept mumbling about being a Francofile. I had a Hell of a job attaching him to the bonnet of the car but his head will look good on the trophy wall, and slowly cooked in wine and served on a bed of rice, the rest of him should go down very well.Off to get his mate today. Don't want the ******s breeding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 You'll be having a busy season then - he has 4800 *mates* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceni Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 Perhaps those of you with B&B facilities oop north could put together a package tour for the redundant Quorn or Belvoir ? P&O might even offer a final sail deal ?John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaligoBay Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 "Bagged my first expat of the season yesterday."You don't impress me with your Big Game Hunter talk, Bogs Old Bean.Everyone knows they're bred specially and let out to wander in the lovely-woods-like-wot-you-can't-find-in-England-any-more-because-you'll-only-get-killed-or-worse in the autumn.btw, what breed of expat was it? an Anglais, an Arabe, or what? What would you recommend for a beginner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boghound Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 [quote]"Bagged my first expat of the season yesterday." You don't impress me with your Big Game Hunter talk, Bogs Old Bean. Everyone knows they're bred specially and let out to wander in the lovely-woods...[/quote]SB. I'd reccomend that you start on the over 60's English expat. They seem to spend much of their time "grazing" around reccomended "watering holes" and speaking in very loud mono-symbeles in amongst their vast herd. They are so intent in what they are complaining about. You can often sneak up so close as to just club them over the head with a day old bagette and so saving on the price of ammo.Good hunting and always have a full "stockpot". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opas Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 The sanglier are well looked after in our dept(66),our neighbour goes into the woods every night,after rubbing rotten peaches on his wheels(apparantly this attracts them)he feeds them stale bread and bruised fuit from his orchards ,takes the village kids up there(ours included) to count the babies....what does one call a baby sanglier? a sangliette? then hopefully bags a few for dinner and the freezer.....still waiting for a portion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 Opas enquires:what does one call a baby sanglier?marcassin... sweet little stripy jobs, but take care not to get between mama and babes. Mama gets seriously annoyed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 Marcassin - usefull having a French husband. Sometimes.I like the bit about the ex-pats. I imagine, around here, at least, that the Froggie is in danger of losing his habitat and hunting grounds. Been outbid by the ex-pats and are slowly being pushed into a smaller area.Does this mean that what happened to the red squirrel in the UK will happen to the Froggies here? Get their nuts pinched and be forced to interbreed, eventually wiping out the Froggie race?Blimey! Just thought. Already happened in this family. Power to les Anglaise!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard-R Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 [quote]Opas enquires:what does one call a baby sanglier?marcassin... sweet little stripy jobs, but take care not to get between mama and babes. Mama gets seriously annoyed.[/quote]hum baby suckling pig(hog). Not sure about nailing the trotters to the door though, and a house, not that far from us as a giant fibreglass one on the roof. only in france. still better than mauling foxes with dogs. what does fox meat taste like???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deemar Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 " I'd reccomend that you start on the over 60's English expat. They seem to spend much of their time "grazing" around reccomended "watering holes" and speaking in very loud mono-symbeles in amongst their vast herd. They are so intent in what they are complaining about. You can often sneak up so close as to just club them over the head with a day old bagette and so saving on the price of ammo." I really take exception to this remark. I am an over 60 expat. although have been here since my early 50's. We graze around no local watering holes preferring to graze within our own four walls. We do not complain and certainly do not speak in loud tones either in English or French.We do not have a vast herd of expats around us and I think we blend in with the local area. We socialise with our neighbours be they French, Dutch or English with the odd Scot thrown in . Should you try and sneak up behind me with a day old baguette you are most likely to be clubbed in return with a spade or pick that I happen to be using at the time. Perhaps, as you mature you will learn not to tar everyone with the same brush and also to spell. Reccomend,monosymbeles, bagette indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boghound Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 [quote]" I'd reccomend that you start on the over 60's English expat. They seem to spend much of their time "grazing" around reccomended "watering holes" and speaking in very loud mono-symbeles in amongst th...[/quote]Perhaps you will grasp a sense of humour but alas, if you are as mature as you say you are, it's already too late. Just keep watch your back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceni Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 "... odd Scot" - though I would not describe them in that way I will bow to my elder.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 If you listen carefully ... put your ear to the screen ... you will be able to hear the hunters banging away here.In thick fog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monika Posted October 3, 2004 Author Share Posted October 3, 2004 Hey, what have you done to my questions?!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 [quote]Hey, what have you done to my questions?!!![/quote]Ignored them completely, naturally! Did they have dogs or hounds with them? If so, what sort? The type of dog should give a clue as to what's being hunted - though many French hounds are apparently multi-quarry. We're in southern 50 and I do know that sanglier are hunted here and we've seen deer, hare and partridge but in the UK, not everything comes into season at once. So I'll enquire whether "everything" is (literally) fair game from the opening of the season or whether hunters have to limit themselves according to the date. If the latter, it might explain why so many hunters get shot... partly out of frustration because there's nothing else to shoot. And sheer stupidity, of course! Foxes are undoubtedly shot too, but as they're not edible I left them out of my seasonal wonderings. We've noticed how little road kill there is (although there's been a few squished hedgehogs recently ) but I think it's a combination around here of lack of traffic, plenty of woods and hedgerows... and large numbers of hunters. There are very few rabbits because myxie reappeared 5+ years ago and numbers plummeted.As for white van man with fire...????? Bespoke pizza emporium?! Charcoal production? Heath Robinson food smoker? Carole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monika Posted October 3, 2004 Author Share Posted October 3, 2004 Thank you Carole:they are hunting with "elongated" Spaniel Type dogs. That's what we were wondering, perhaps they just shoot anything which moves? As to the van, I was also thinking of Charcoal but the food smoking makes sense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deemar Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 Could the white van be an "alambic" , mobile still ? They are still in use round here and people take their plums etc to be distilled. I believe this will shortly die out as the people who have a licence have previously been allowed to pass the licence on to their descendants but that has now been stopped. Here in the South West the season for "gros gibier", boar and deer, starts at the end of August and continues until the end of Jan/early Feb. Thankfully, at the moment, the weather is unseasonably warm and scent is poor so we are not having too many of the hunters around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN_S Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 SB Sanglier are most definately wild around here, especially when they are being hunted!The dogs also get damaged on a regular basis and some taken out in dog trailers hide when released to sneak back to their kennel after an hour or so. You can see they thought " sod that" I'm off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now