sanglier

Chasse aux sangliers

Posted on by MELewis

Cute, aren’t they? Not so much when they take over your home, farm field or vacation spot.

Wild boars have become the bane of many regions and towns in France. Not only do they present a risk of road accidents but encroaching urbanization means they are now a common sight around people’s homes. And they are proliferating like never before.

Canada’s cities have their raccoons and, increasingly, bears. Australia has its marsupials. Skunks, possums, foxes…increasingly it seems that wild animals are finding their way into our cities and towns. Or is it that our towns are expanding into their habitats?

One man in France recently returned home to find his house occupied by a terrified sanglier and the hunters who had followed him into the hall to track him down. The homeowner got them to leave and called the police. The gendarmes came and were able to get the animal outside with tasers, where it was let go.

Hunters are not allowed to pursue their prey any closer than 150 metres from a home or residential area, at least in theory. But there are those who demand measures to stop the scourge of the sanglier in France.

Crops are devastated when troops of wild boars take over the fields. They are especially attracted to the increasingly prevalent corn fields, grown for animal feed and bio-fuel. They rip up the grass in public gardens and golf courses in search of insects. And they even visit beaches looking for naïve tourists to share their picnics.

This video news report (in French) profiles an invasion of wild boars in Germany a couple of years ago, but it depicts an all-too-common scene in France today.

Every year thousands of these animals are hunted, trapped and otherwise chased away from human habitations. It seems unfair. Weren’t they there first? Shouldn’t they have the right to root about in the wild, nest in the bush, live their lives?

The problem is that human activities are not compatible with wildlife. We like to encourage migrating birds, but wild boars are something else. They bring a risk of swine fever for one thing. And they are outright dangerous to people. Sangliers are known to charge fences, knock down doors, pedestrians and cyclists. They have a powerful head butt that can do a lot of damage.

And if you run into one on the road at night, it’s not sure who will sustain the worst damage.

Hunting season is open in France and soon there will be ‘chasse’ on the menu of local restaurants. I’m no fan of guns or game but at least it will help reduce the nuisance population of wild boars and not go to waste.

Do you have to deal with any animal pests?

Beauty and the beast

Posted on by MELewis

IMG_1267They call it ‘l’île de beauté’. But beauty is only half of the story. Here’s why Corsica is the preferred vacation spot of the French…and why it took me twenty years to get there.

When the rest of the world descends upon the south of France, the French flee to their most cherished summer vacation spot: la Corse. Situated just above Sardinia, the rugged Mediterranean island is actually closer to Italy than France, and the Corsican language resonates like Italian.

For years friends have been urging me to visit Corsica. “C’est magnifique…You won’t regret it….Small, private beaches….Perfect weather….Wild and uninhabited…Food that combines the best of French and Italian.” Hmm…sounds like my kind of vacation place. In fact, with so much going for it, I’m not sure what was holding us back.

Actually, I do. My husband. He had a very negative preconception about les Corses. Macho types who refuse to speak French and want their independence. And I’d heard so much in the news about mafia-style murders and bombs going off in Corsica, I wasn’t keen to go anywhere near the place.

But then someone explained that Corsica lives almost entirely off tourism and none of the violence actually targets holiday-makers. The acts of terrorism that make the headlines are règlements de compte (settling of scores) between the locals and outsiders who try to encroach upon their territory. So this summer we decided to find out for ourselves.

Here’s what we discovered about l’île de beauté:

  •  Island of beauty: Corsica really does live up to the claim. The mountains and coastline are breathtakingly beautiful, and everywhere you go offers postcard views. It’s rare in France to see so much flora and fauna with so few people. And the weather was indeed perfect: hot and sunny with the right amount of sea breeze to keep cool.
  • Steeped in history: The birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte is Ajaccio, the regional capital of Corsica; there’s a museum in his ancestral home, Casa Buonaparte, and places all over the island named after him. Over the centuries the island has changed ownership several times and even enjoyed a brief period of independence…so it has a lot of stories to tell.
  • Geography is destiny? Corsica is shaped a bit like a fist sticking its finger in the air. This may have something to do with the strong sense of identity and revolutionary bent of its inhabitants.carte-corse
  • One region divided in two: Corsica is a full-fledged region of France with two administrative departments: Haute-Corse, the more mountainous and uninhabited north, and Corse-du-Sud, the southern half that draws the most tourists to its beaches.
  • Two official symbols: a moor’s head, which is shown on the official Corsican flag (along with license plates, beer labels, etc), and the wild boar (le sanglier) which is also one of its denizens — also frequently on the menu. We saw this little guy by the roadside near the route des îles Sanguinaires.IMG_1310
  • Charcuterie and cheese: Two of the island’s gourmet specialities, along with superb seafood and some very nice wines.
  • Polyphonic choral music: No, these guys don’t have an earache, they’re just blocking each other’s voices out in order to focus on their own. The result is hauntingly beautiful, if you like that sort of music. I am a fan, at least for the first five minutes.
  • Famous people: Many well-known French personalities have summer homes in Corsica. Other than Napoleon, and, some claim, Christopher Columbus, famous Corsicans include Laetitia Casta, an iconic French model and actress.
  • An amazing hiking trail. The GR (Grande Randonnée) 20 is a challenging trek across the island from north to south. I dream of returning one day and doing at least a segment of it. Assuming I can put aside some of these local attractions long enough…IMG_1315