gilles Posted 23 September , 2011 Share Posted 23 September , 2011 all the british ... this sunday 25 th open the "chasse" in France at 10:am ..... gilles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Tom Posted 23 September , 2011 Share Posted 23 September , 2011 Soyez prudent mes amis c'est dangereuse. Old Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathie Posted 23 September , 2011 Share Posted 23 September , 2011 Please advise how, where and when one should be prudent. I will be wandering in October and November. I assume no hiding in undergrowth but apart from that .... can one walk on the sides of fields, must one wear a luminous jacket, is the hunt on weekdays etc etc???/ Thanks for help Kathie3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthergw Posted 23 September , 2011 Share Posted 23 September , 2011 The main danger would be in woods. Almost all of them are privately owned and shot over in season. Inquire at the local Mairie as to where one may go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterhogg Posted 24 September , 2011 Share Posted 24 September , 2011 I have walked areas of the Somme battlefields in October and November and found the following might be useful tips: 1. Stay out of the woods as Truthergw has wisely written. 2. Wearing a bright coloured-jacket (not white) but orange or yellow or with reflective strips like a running jacket. 3. In addition to checking with the Mairie you can pop into a local tabac and inquire. Many hunters will have a "bracer" before the chasse, such as at the tabac at Longueval. 4. Walking the fields you might encounter groups. Say bonjour, be FRIENDLY and ask if it's safe to proceed. I walked along Redan Ridge and encountered a couple of groups--pas de probleme. The landscape in areas has many small folds and valleys and it's easy to lose sight of other people so you might just suddenly come across a group of hunters. They know to expect people on a Great War walk. They are respectful but one has to respect their hunting season also. 5. If you find yourself in a field ahead of a group that is shooting AND THE DOGS ARE COMING TOWARDS YOU, maybe pause for a bit to be sure where they are going--and pray. 6. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT WEAR A RABBIT COSTUME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 24 September , 2011 Share Posted 24 September , 2011 ....6. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT WEAR A RABBIT COSTUME. ... Kathie most but not all of the shooting is at the weekend, especially Sundays. Game and vermin shooters dont tend to follow precise routes or timetables, so asking in advance at the local café will do you limited good. Youve already been given all the basic good advice, but you may like to consider the possibility that being in a field with people with shotguns is not the place to be. Being hit by the contents of a conventional shotgun cartridge (shot) at 40 yards could be lethal and you could be badly hurt much farther away than that. Also bear in mind that if you are walking across ground that the hunters are approaching then you are disturbing any quarry in the area ie you are annoying somebody who is carrying a gun. Enjoy your trip. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 25 September , 2011 Share Posted 25 September , 2011 Connor, Thanks for the usefull tips, but I am slight confused. I will be wearing high viz jacket but also a helmet. Would that get me in trouble? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 25 September , 2011 Share Posted 25 September , 2011 The sub-heading of this thread, 'Battle of Loos', reminds me that one of the potentially most dangerous things one can do in an area being shot over is to sneak into the undergrowth for a discreet comfort break ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 25 September , 2011 Share Posted 25 September , 2011 If they wound you be sure to try to crawl away before they finish you off, it is much cheaper to kill you and say it was your fault than pay the compensation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterhogg Posted 25 September , 2011 Share Posted 25 September , 2011 Connor, Thanks for the usefull tips, but I am slight confused. I will be wearing high viz jacket but also a helmet. Would that get me in trouble? Hmmm, I think simmered in a wine sauce with some shallots you will be fine...... BTW: During hunting season, I should be clear, I was keeping to the little roads which nevertheless cross the fields but allow for some visibility. I've seen hunters gather around Waggon road for example or near Munich cem before they set out Anyway, good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Tom Posted 26 September , 2011 Share Posted 26 September , 2011 A couple of years ago I was in the area of the start line for Cambrai. It was misty. Across the filed appeared a groups of soldiers with their rifles at the high port. At least at first sight that is what it looked like. Old Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
59165 Posted 26 September , 2011 Share Posted 26 September , 2011 Lots & lots of monkeys with 12 bores & no discipline out & about yesterday between here & Dunkirk & then ,later on in the afternoon,around the frontier on the Tournai road. I kept the windows half open & periodically shouted,'over here,muppets',guaranteeing a miss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathie Posted 29 September , 2011 Share Posted 29 September , 2011 I have commissioned good friend to write out for me the French for " I would like to walk around the outskirts of the local fields and woods. I hope I will disturb noone. Can you tell me if there will be hunters out today and where they will be?". If this is a truly good friend then the translation will be ok - if not, I will find myself with pellets deeply embedded or worse..... What happens if it is a Saturday or Sunday and the Mairie is closed? What times do pubs open??? I am collecting hire car from Europcar in Lille. From previous posts I have learnt that it is compulsory to have a fluorescent jacket and triangles in vehicle - I assume Europcar supplies these. Can I use said fluoroescent jacket as I walk round fields. Thanks for help. Kathie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 29 September , 2011 Share Posted 29 September , 2011 Kathie – your seemingly trusting belief that a bunch of (certainly post midday) possibly well lubricated Frenchmen may have some kind of plan or schedule, or be paying attention to what they are shooting before they shoot it – is touching. Noting your location, could I perhaps compare walking infront of La Chasse to maybe being, self-preservation wise, a bit like wandering round a township after dark clutching a handful of rand notes. Keep away from woodland, hedges, any other kind of “cover”, and men with guns. If you find guns getting anywhere near you then try to get onto a public road or failing that a very open area, and either way make yourself as visible as possible. I wont post a direct link, but if you need to see the consequences go to Google images and search “shotgun wound” or similar. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 30 September , 2011 Share Posted 30 September , 2011 Frenchmen with guns are the most casually incompetent you can confront. Their discipline is always,in my experience, worringly poor. Just stay away from them - as you would anyone wandering around with a gun you don't know pretty well!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathie Posted 1 October , 2011 Share Posted 1 October , 2011 i am now very unhappy and planning to petition Sarkozy or someone else to cancel the hunting season. Where was I planning to walk and explore and sit quietly - Gauche Wood near Villers Guislain, Marrieres Wood near Bouchaasvesnes, Trones and Bernafay Woods near Montauban???? And now?? Perhaps French hunter have breakfast, lunch, supper, go to work, go to chruch????/ There must be sometime that me and rabbits and little deer will be safe??? Kathie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 1 October , 2011 Share Posted 1 October , 2011 i am now very unhappy and planning to petition Sarkozy or someone else .. ... Gauche Wood near Villers Guislain, Marrieres Wood near Bouchaasvesnes, Trones and Bernafay Woods near Montauban???? And now?? ... Kathie – ref your first point – I firstly misread it and thought you’d written … planning to petition Sarkozy or someone important Ref your second point – go on, go the whole hog (I’ll bet some South Africans wandered about here mid 1916) – Mametz Wood (And if you survive you can, in your dotage, sit little children on your knee and tell them, Yes dears, I’m the one who wandered through Mametz Wood during La Chasse, and survived !) Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 1 October , 2011 Share Posted 1 October , 2011 Is there any evidence that battlefield walkers have ever been wounded by les chasseurs? (I recall a dodgy chicken chasseur bringing down all of the residents of a university hall of residence, but that is an entirely different story). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 1 October , 2011 Share Posted 1 October , 2011 Off to the Somme next week and looking to borrow a Kevlar vest and a Lewis gun ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathie Posted 1 October , 2011 Share Posted 1 October , 2011 Tom, What makes you think I'm not already in my dotage. I know I'm already inclined to reminisce about the 'olden days'..... Yes, I shall neverthless be striding off.... and if I come across a chasseur I shall make the sign of the cross in a lordly fashion.... Kathie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 1 October , 2011 Share Posted 1 October , 2011 Is there any evidence that battlefield walkers have ever been wounded by les chasseurs?.. Chris – No never been wounded, but - Rue de Gueudecourt; the wooded section east of Flers towards Bulls Road Cemetery (public highway of course) – bits of tree raining down on two of us and no obvious indication of where the fire was coming from. Swift exit from the area. Polygon Wood, just SE of the butte and over the cemetery wall (I could climb walls in those days). Similar to above but by myself. Yes stupid place to be, but fortunately the Belgians are more gifted at understanding profanities shouted in English than the French are. “Best” of all ? – shotgun pointed straight at three of us (one of whom was French), off the hip, from about twenty foot. Sort of thing which in the UK would see you having a holiday at HRH QEII’s expense and would mark the end of your shotgun cert and the chance of ever having another one. Bloke seemed to be an unofficial garde-chasse and was as thick as the two proverbial planks. We were walking across an open uncropped field a few hundred yards south of the H..........n Redoubt. It was a fairly short confrontation and fortunately his “bottle went” and he scuttled off. Could have ended badly. I use a shotgun quite regularly (clays), and can assure you that being on the wrong end of one is not a place to be. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 2 October , 2011 Share Posted 2 October , 2011 Do you still wear that 1960's t-shirt with a target on it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 2 October , 2011 Share Posted 2 October , 2011 Do you still wear that 1960's t-shirt with a target on it? Strange you should say that Chris .... I picked a new one up on e-bay just a couple of months ago (and the two cd edition of Quadrophenia is on the nick-naks shelf in the car ) Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted 2 October , 2011 Share Posted 2 October , 2011 Quadro....yuk! Watching that was the only time I ever got ejected from a cinema. As the only ex-rocker in the audience, as that heap of cr*p went off Beachy Head, I cheered. the manager came and escorted me out of the cinema "for my own protection"! Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kluson Posted 8 October , 2011 Share Posted 8 October , 2011 Got back on Tuesday from a couple of days on the somme whilst on business. Driving down on Sunday via Vimy Ridge I couldn't believe the number of people out shooting, it was at least three per field, saw one guy with a couple of Pheasant and that was all. To be honest it was all the way from just after the tunnel down to Albert. On the Monday there was no one around, we walked up to Redan Ridge from the sunken lane and three Partridge - shot out, good job they weren't there the day before. As ever the Somme didn't cease to move me. I am continually drawn to the sunken lane. I have no idea why but it has some kind of power over me, probably because of the stills from the film are always shown, and I guess it is pretty much as it was. Can't wait to get back, maybe after the shooting dies down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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