Saturday 24 September 2011

The hunt is on...

The hunting season is back  and the signs are out in force.
Auchan carries a seemingly popular range of attire for the hunting fraternity, including headgear now, sadly, more commonly associated with terrorists than with the simple task of keeping warm.

It would be easy to dismiss all this as an excuse to dress up in quasi army gear at the weekend. But that would do those who hunt in the French countryside a vast disservice. The management of the countryside is at its heart and these guys are trained to a high level.

Back in  May when we went along to the Grande Vente Emmaus one of our purchases was a book entitled "Le Permis de Chasser", a study guide to follow in order to 'qualify' for the hunt.


As well as the practical hoops to be jumped through to enter oneself for the examination, the book details full facts about each animal and bird which can be hunted, chapters on types of arms and ammunitions - including some rather fetching images of how to carry one's weapon....


It details types of hunt, legislation and care of hunting dogs plus a section of test papers and some advice for after the exam, as apparently this is not the end of the process. One still has to present oneself at (where else?) the Mairie, armed (no pun intended) with all the relevant documentation....

No doubt that will be a tale in itself!! For now we'll content ourselves with "Soyons Vigilant" and "Attention!!" and, of course, "Prudence!"

2 comments:

Diane said...

When cycling this time of the year I stay on the bigger roads and wear VERY bright colours!!! I gather that when shooting, they are supposed to fire slightly downwards as the bullets can travel a long way if they go straight and miss the target. I know at least one did not do that around here last year as one person had to take a trip to hospital!!! I have never seen them in that sort of head gear though, that is more scary than tangling with the hunt. We are overrun with sanglier so it does have its advantages, but I hate hunting otherwise. Diane

Susan said...

I agree that if you are a nature conservationist in France you need to ally yourself to the hunting lobby, and in many places the partnership works well. However, some individuals could do to study the page on how to carry their weapons again. And let's hope they are more skilled at prey ID than the young fool in the US who shot his mate while hunting bear the other day.