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Hunting Season in Provence Review
The season for hunting 'sangliers' starts in August
While languishing in the heat waves of this summer, we dreamt of cooler times, of autumn days when a light sweater may be wished for and a fire in the fireplace is not unheard of. Suddenly the sound of a firecracker pierced through the heavy air. Hunters, we realized, with a strange sense of relief. It meant that the season had started and that autumn could not be far away.
Later that day we read in Var-Matin that the hunting season for the wild boars - sangliers - had started on August 15. This was sooner than usual. During the past years, the boars had increased their numbers prodigiously. Local hunters put up a huge effort (with great enthusiasm - hunting is a passion in France), but to little avail. The boars hide during the day, and appear at night, when they forage the dense covers of the forest floors for nourishment and water, and often wander into cultivated areas. Pity the gardener who sees his rows of fresh beans disappear in one night. Pity the neighbour who, one morning, opened his door and fell into a freshly made hole just in front.
Most of the time, the sangliers have the last laugh. Yet, one summer day, when walking through a nearby hameau (hamlet), we noticed a barn door that advertised the domicile as being a Gite. The rest of the door was covered with an impressive array of hunting trophies, boar feet and fox tails.
Whatever the outcome this year, we are sure that the hunter will be the more frustrated one, especially when it comes to "accidents." A few years ago a hunter shot and killed his neighbor and fellow hunter, mistaking his friend's military crew cut for a boar's bristle. Later, it turned out that there was more to it than mistaken identity. Something to do with the hunter's wife and the hapless neighbour...
