Most villages in France have a hunting association, as that is the system here. Most will put on a lunch once a year for everyone who wants to come and it is great because most of the folks who come don't hunt but they love the fact that we do. On Saturday we cleaned out an old tobacco barn for five hours in case it rained on Sunday, and we ended up using the tobacco barn because it looked like rain. Otherwise we had a great spot under big trees in front of a huge stone house.

Here's the setup just before people showed up.


Everybody pays when they come in.... 18 Euros for everything. They guy in the Arab outfit is a great guy and loves to joke around.



Jean Jaques cooking some red deer steaks. He is a local game warden and a very good hunter.



A good friend serving up the beans. I never ate them is the US, but they are a green bean cooked with bacon and onions.



We were 98 people all together and had a great time. Lots of work, as many of you know from trapping events, but well worth it.



Pete

Looks like a great time! How many did you feed?

Looks like a great time and good food Pete!

Zim

That's a great event to have!

We were 98 in total and it was the biggest lunch in years. Normally it is around 50 people.

The meat was rare and we had melon and ham to start, plus cheese and dessert after.

Pete

Looks and sounds like a great time. Thank you for sharing.

you know with only a few distinctions that could be the US

only 1 ball cap and it is a woman wearing it

real plates nearly every gathering here now is paper or plastic even funerals , sort of a shame

an old shed in that nice of shape that isn't a historical site.


looks like a good gathering.

Good crowd

What a good sounding time.
What kind of wine was served?

Hadda Google it, but, 18 Euro's is about $19.58, Pretty good deal.

It looks like a great time to me. Doubled the attendance. Seems like it was a success. What part of France? I spent nine weeks at Mont-de-Marsan is support of Kosovo. The French gave us a hanger on the base to run a refueling operation out of. I enjoyed it there. It was a good TDY

Is it difficult to obtain permission to hunt in France? Does your club lease hunting land?

Thanks for the replies.

Our local area makes a wine from Malbec grapes, like all of the wine from Argentina, and it is called Cahors wine. There are hundreds of different wines in France and they all have a denomination that is official... like Bordeaux or Burgundy. Malbec is a strong red wine but very good in my mind, especially with red meat or game.

MJM.... I remember you telling me before that you were in Mt. de Marsan at the air base. Since 2009 we lived southwest of there in the Basque country, but three years ago we moved and are now two hours east of Mt. de Marsan. They routinely fly training missions over our house.

As for the hunting land here, it is a very different system. If you own land in a village, you can sign a paper letting the local association come on to your land during the driven hunts. Almost everybody does it. At first I didn't like it until I figured out that when I bowhunt or go out for a roe deer by myself, I have thousands of acres to hunt. I don't even need to ask permission, but I usually call the landowner just to be nice. Hunting here is purely about population control, except for some very private land around Paris where they sell trophy hunts for red deer.

In Germany if you own land the government tells you how many wil boars and red deer you have to kill every year. If you don't kill enough, they send in the government hunters and send you the bill.

Pete

looks like a great time , thanks for sharing,

So is the game yours or the States like some European countries? I hunted with a Polish group in Illinois years back and everything was very regulated there the game belonged to the State and had to be purchased after you harvested it ammo was highly regulated also.

Life doesn't get much better than that! Looks like a great time.

Hi Jerry

The game is all ours. In fact we can't find enough people who want it after the first couple months. I've started making burger from the boars and red deer and people love it.

Ammo and guns here are easier than most of the US. Only need a hunting license to buy either.


Pete

Looks good.

Looks like a swell time. So was the meat cooked "bleu" then?