Might have to protect myself....

against all these roe deer. My wife and I moved about 4 hours northeast to a different region of France two weeks ago. We regretted leaving the farm, but the life in town was getting too crazy with tourists and traffic.
The move went smoothly and I got the animals up here safely.

I knew there would be more deer here than we had at the farm, but I never imagined this. Almost everyt morning or evening if I step out of the house I have a buck barking at me from the trees. Yesterday morning I had 4 of them below the soon to be garden and one of them sounded like a senior citizen.

I get to start in June with bow or rifle and should get plenty of tags. We bought some hay from a great guy who turns out to be the president of the local hunting association. There are tons of wild boar and some red stag too.



Can't wait.

Good luck,

Pete

It looks good to me............shotgun country?

I have been trying since the covid meneg to get over to cz to buy a place to retire, it has gone like-.

Have fun over there, even if we wanted to we couldnt come over for dinner.

Looks like you got away from the tourists and traffic alright. Glad your move went off with no major glitches. How about a picture of some of them deer?

glad your move went good , pic. of wild live ,and hunts please

It looks a lot less hilly than your other place.

That is a cool looking house Pete, I hope the new digs work out for you guys. Do you have much acreage there?
Too many deer is a fun problem to remedy.
Was just thinking of you yesterday as Patrice and I got the turkey calls chalked up, season coming soon.

Take care, Zim

That's an awesome looking spread. Hope you have to defend yourself a lot.

Thanks all.

I'll send pictures of some bucks on the ground hopefully in June/July. The rut starts late July and they do come to a call pretty well, but they don't stick around too long if they don't see a potential girlfriend.

We have 20 acres here, about 80% pasture and the rest in hardwood forest. Definitely flatter here than at the old farm.... something that pleases my legs and back. No wild ferns to cut or burn, lots fewer blackberries to weed whack too. Closest wild trout fishing is about asn hour north, but our local river has lots of pike and walleye. Going to have to polish my filet knife technique.

Like everywhere in France, most hunt on the driven shoots with dogs and a dozen guns or so. That starts in September, but I get to hunt alone from June til end of February. Lots of foxes here too.

Good luck on the walking birds Zim and Patrice. I hope the French wood brings them running.



I'll post more pictures soon.

Pete

Beautiful spot. What are the gun laws like over there? Are acreages as expensive in France as they are in Canada? In my neck of the woods your place would sell for well over 1-million CAD.

So is that up around Dijon?

Nice !

How much does ammo cost in France ??

Yukon 254, the prices here vary a lot depending on the region. We moved to the least populated part of France. Big old houses are of little interest for the young couples, but with the virus a lot of city folks are looking to get out and work from home. Gun laws here are actually better than most states in the US. Long guns are no problem, and to own a handgun you only have to belong to a shooting club, pass a simple class and you're good to go. The real problem is that you don't have the right to protect yourself unless the intruder has an equal weapon. Not like Texas here.

Beaverpeeler, I know you are familiar with France. We are about 25 minutes north/northwest of Cahors, so we are still in the broader southwest but 4 hours from the coast. I'm not missing the cool surfer attitude and rich snobs from Paris. People here are just normal and lots of farmers around us.

If MJM sees this, he was stationed for a while about two hours from here and the jets run their training flights over us now and then.

Pete

If I would guess land would be higher in Europe since they have less of it. Of course that's just my uneducated guess.

If I would guess land would be higher in Europe since they have less of it. Of course that's just my uneducated guess.

OK, so you're pretty much due east of Bordeaux. I can't remember exactly where but once went out that way to a farm to buy bulk wine with my French family. Very peaceful. Really kind of funny, they were filling every container they had with wine all the way down to 2 liter plastic coke bottles.

Good deal!! I’m glad everything went well!!

Roe deer. Ain't that the little one about the size of a large poodle? Horns come up and fork?

French farmers are smart about buying wine. In the Basque country they'd buy Spanish wine as it was good and less expensive. Once you find something decent for a table wine you can load up, but it doesn't keep so well being re-loaded into jugs, bottles etc, so you gotta drink it fast.

If you ask any winemaker in the world, they'll all tell you that they want people to buy their wine and DRINK it, not put it into the cellar and brag about it.

We got a bid from a mason to open up a door in the stone barn, and pour concrete for the horse/donkeys, and my 60 square meter woodshop, plus a window and it was less than half what we expected. I've poured sidewalks and driveways with a couple buddies, but making a door in a stone wall two feet thick is above my pay grade.

Pete

swift4me, I saw your post and wondered where you had moved too. Quite a change in terrain you have. I wondered how close I was when I would run from Mont de Marsan to Istres. I would guess I was south of where you are when I was on the road. It was always a mad dash to pick up aircraft parts for a down plane, so I didn't get much sight seeing in. I enjoyed my time in France, but spent most of it working.

Thanks for sharing Pete, it looks a little like a guy would imagine paradise to be.

If you don't mind my asking how old is the house.

If the French are anything like the Germans those old stone walls are stout as heck. We busted through one on our Company HQ in graf to make an operations room in the basement. Must've been a meter thick and it was only supporting two stories above. Probably the primary reason so many of those old buildings survived two world wars.

Yes, Please

MJM.. we are 25 minutes north/NW of Cahors and the jets from Mt de Marsan fly over every other day on training runs. Not far at all.

Steven 49er... the original structure was built in 1776. It is carved in three different stones above doors. When I saw the date I said it was an omen for an American to be here. The barn and other small buildings were built in the 1800's.

Warrior... We had thick walls in the Basque country and these are just as thick, but it is great when you move around France you see the houses built out of the local stones and they are all different.

Good luck to all

Pete