10 October 2022

PERFECT WEATHER

 


Our builder has been making the most of the recent fine weather which has been perfect for outdoor work.  All of the new velux windows are now in, including the one in the bathroom which wasn't there before.  What a difference that has made and I can hardly believe that we have put up with a windowless bathroom for eight years.

The new windows open and close by remote control, powered by solar power.  They're wonderful.





When I took Hugo to La Celle-Guenand the other day for his morning walk I was reminded of why I find the months of September and October so enjoyable.  As long as it's not pouring with rain of course.  The fine and mild weather and the autumn colours are lovely.  The cooler evenings create a background smell of woodsmoke from all the log burning fires in people's houses.

I like April and May just as much for similar reasons.  The only months I don't enjoy quite as much are July and August because of the all too frequent heatwaves.

What I'm not too keen on at this time of year is that the hunting season is in full swing.  This bloke has started turning up at the back of our house on several evenings with his gun.

He parks his white van at the end of the late neighbour's lane and walks down to the abandoned house.  He lurks amongst the empty tumbledown buildings presumably to hide from the deer and hare that roam the field behind.  So far we have not heard a shot being fired.

I'm not sure if this is legal or not.  I have no idea if he has permission from the current owner to use the property as a hide for shooting animals, or even if he needs it.  We never saw anything like this when the neighbour was alive and the property occupied.  Equally I don't know if the neighbour's brother who inherited it, or the new owner who is rumoured to have bought it, know what he's up to.  The law relating to hunting in rural France is a mystery to me.  All I do know is that I don't feel comfortable about having a bloke with a gun only about 250 metres from our house.  

When the hunters are all in a line at the edge of the trees, wearing fluorescent jackets and pointing their guns towards the depths of the wood I don't feel so vulnerable.  One man on his own, heavily camouflaged, close to our house in the fading light and trigger happy does not seem safe to me.  He usually disappears to whence he came once it's too dark to see anything in the field.  Hunting "accidents" are not uncommon in these parts.

9 comments:

  1. I understand your anxiety. Do you know any of the locals well enough to ask them about the gun laws?

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    1. Angela, we have friends who participate in the official hunts. I'll check with them next time we meet.

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  2. Autumn? Those photos make it look like you are still hanging onto summer - I've been wondering where ours had disappeared to!

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    1. October can be a lovely month here, warm days but cool nights.

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  3. We bought a book from a brocante with all hunting details... They used to come round us and scared Elizabeth one day when they fired a bit too close to the house... It is what you get if you live rurally...

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  4. Strangely, we have no hunters out in the vineyard so far this year. Hunting around here is limited to Sundays, because on other days workers might be out tending the vines. It would be too dangerous. And the hunting schedule is from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on those Sundays, for 4 or 5 months between the end of Sept. and the beginning of Feb. 1, with slight variations each year. All the information about hunting schedules is available from the Mairie of our village. Organized hunts called battues are scheduled ahead of time and publicized.

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  5. Could he have bought the house and be using it as his "hunting lodge"? At least he's holding the gun in the correct way! Obviously in the photos he is in ordinary clothes but does he usually appear to be in camoflauge gear? I must find the book we bought about the process of becoming a hunter. It's not as straightforward or gung ho as one might think.

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  6. Dear me I wasn't aware folks in Europe still hunted. I learned something.

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