Sheep, you are not alone!

"Viral marketing" for the sheepherder protest. Translation: "Sheep, you are not alone!"

I’m back from Bordeaux! It was an epic adventure with a giant sand dune and what may or may not have been Roland’s grave, but that’s a story for another blog post. Here is the sheepherder protest post I promised. For a couple of weeks, I’d seen the above phrase spray painted around town. I thought it was an abstract statement, like the sheep are not alone because humans behave like sheep, or something like that. But no, it was more literal than I could ever have imagined.

400 sheep start their march through the center of Valence.

I was walking back from the bus stop after teaching on Thursday when I saw a herd of 400 sheep in the middle of town. There was one sheep dog on a leash to control them all, who was let loose a couple of times to round up wandering sheep. Apparently, it was a protest of the status of sheepherder jobs in this region. So most of the people marching were sheepherders, looking every bit the stereotype I have of that in my head. There are actually some videos of the protest on La Dauphine’s website that show the sheep in action. I, however, decided to follow the protest as it winded through the cobblestones because I had nothing better to do, rather than for any news value. I’m a writer, not a reporter! Not in France, at least.

The sheep and their people set off for the town.

I found this all to be hilarious, but the French reaction seemed to be to just stare blankly. Or take a camera phone picture. However, the man in the black jacket in this picture is mirroring my reaction. You can see that the sheep were marked with paint to keep them identified for the later round-up. For now, though, they moved as one great sheep herd, blending their sheep races into an indistinguishable white mob of protest.

The 400 sheep destroy the city's vegetation.

The sheep stopped cars, buses, and pedestrian traffic. They also devoured all plants and flowers in their path. And this being a “Ville Fleurie,” there was plenty to go around. The sheepherders made a half-hearted effort to stop them, but it seemed to just be for show for the police escorts (yes, the sheepherder protest had several police escorts). Good thing it’s freezing cold outside and the plants were going to be replaced anyway. There was one point where someone threw a leafy tree branch in front of the sheep and they all scrambled towards it, tearing it to shreds with their flat teeth. Like furry velociraptors.

The sheep in the corral, going round and round.

After about 45 minutes of walking through town, the sheep were all herded into a corral that had been built in the Place Belat near where I live. The corral blocked one street, and I was amazed that people were just pulling back part of the gate and walking nonchalantly past the sheep to the other side rather than walking around. When they first got in the corral, the sheep kept circling the fountain while the sheep dog whimpered from outside the corral, probably seeing a need for some leadership. However, they eventually stopped and stood silently while the sheepherders made speeches that I couldn’t really understand.

So that is what I did with one of my afternoons here in France. Bordeaux posts soon!

Sheepherder Protest

Go sheep, go!

I have to go catch a train to Bordeaux, but this Thursday I saw 400 sheep herded through the center of Valence as part of a protest of sheepherder’s work status. Or something like that. You can see more pictures on my flickr and I will make a proper post about it when I get back.

Privas

The mascot of Crème de Marrons, manufactured in the Ardèche department.

I took the bus last Saturday to Privas, in the Ardèche department bordering Drôme (where Valence is located). I got to hang out with some of the awesome assistants working over there and went to a chestnut festival. The festival, called Castagnades d’Automne, celebrated chestnuts grown in the Ardèche. I don’t think I have ever seen a single item celebrated in such an over the top fashion.

The giant rotating chestnut roaster set up in the middle of town.

After I had been there a little while and we’d gotten coffee and walked through the Saturday market, we saw that this giant chestnut roaster had been set up outside the Hotel de Ville. It was basically a rotating cage above a fire, full of chestnuts. Later in the day, it was opened up and free chestnuts and wine were distributed to all while a band played. It was amazing! And I ate too many chestnuts. Actually, following the free chestnuts we had a chestnut themed meal at a local restaurant. It consisted of a chestnut kir, a chestnut and cheese tartine, and a chestnut cake. On Sunday I also had a chestnut crepe and sampled chestnut spice bread at the market. If I had wanted to, I could have eaten chestnut pasta, bought chestnut flour, or (if I ditched my vegetarianism) chestnut sausage. It was ridiculous.

Bicyclists are honored for some reason. It's hard to understand French when it's coming out of a fuzzy sound system.

Above, you can see that the local bicyclists even wear chestnuts on their jerseys. Behind them, town elders, or something like that, wear robes in the shades of chestnuts. Before, I thought that one of my assistant friends in Privas had overstated the importance of the chestnut. But I was oh so wrong. And I have to admit that the chestnuts were delicious. I had never had one before (the ones in the states are a little different), although I think I will wait a little while before eating more.

The chestnut festival band. They played for the whole thing and somehow stayed energetic.

There was also music. The above band, complete with chestnut leaves in their outfits (sorry, I had to point it out), played songs that were somewhat familiar, but most stayed obscured enough that I couldn’t pinpoint them. They did play the Israeli national anthem, for some reason. Maybe they find it more festive than the  la Marseillaise? Anyway, their music was dirge-like at times, but that man playing the drum on the back row had a fantastic moustache and the woman playing the maracas in this picture had endless energy.

The Privas waiters and waitresses "race" from cafe to cafe.

In addition to the gluttonous gorging of chestnuts, there were other events. Like the “garcons” from the cafes that ran a “race” from cafe to cafe where they picked up drinks and tried not to break them. I saw them later in the day and it seemed like a lot of them had drank all their drinks and were breaking them on purpose.

Rallye!

There was also the Rallye de Régularité de l’Ardèche. It had the appearance of a car race, with each of the over 100 tiny classic cars having numbers, but they just drove through town. Anyway, it was on Sunday morning and there was free coffee and tubes of creme de marrons. I loved seeing all the European sports cars, random American imports, and cars that looked like their owners had just put some racing stickers over the pealing paint.

Each more bizarre than the last.

I don’t think I can make this post without showing a couple of the weird owl sculptures that were at the Sunday market. I have no explanation. There were no prices or information, just 20 owl sculptures set up on a table. It would be hard to pick the most bizarre, but they were all incredibly insane in their own way.

Houses on the valley around the river by Privas.

I’ll post one more picture, (although you can find more on my flickr). This is of some of the buildings seen from the big bridge over the river in Privas. I had an absolutely fun and enjoyable time in Privas and it reminded me that I don’t have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to have fun in France. There are always random festivals going on and little towns/big cities (Privas is in between) to explore. A big school break, Toussaint (All Saint’s), is coming up and I’m going to go to Bordeaux on Saturday and getting back to Valence on Wednesday. I think I will spend some more time exploring my region of France.