Damian Elwes discusses two local autumn activities

This is a dangerous time of year to be out in the countryside: if you’re not careful, you could die either from gunshot wounds or by ingesting natural poisons. These two risks can be related

Just two years ago an elderly niçois gathering mushrooms in a wood near Puget-Théniers was suddenly struck down with a blast from a hunting rifle. He’d been walking, unaware, behind the beaters who were working with a party of boar hunters. The man who fired the lethal shots told the gendarmes, “He shouldn’t have been there ... He was in the wrong place.” In any event, no action was taken against the hunter. According to one local, “It’s very hard not to notice the beaters and when you see them you have to get out of the way. The best advice for townees is to keep away from hunting areas at the beginning of the season, especially.”

Mushroom pickers ... mistaken for game
Hunting – la chasse – is big in France. It’s got nothing to do with British-style fox hunting with dogs (very rare here) but involves tracking and killing birds and animals with guns. Official statistics show it to be the most popular sport in France after football. Together the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var count over 20,000 licensed chasseurs. These men (women are  few) spend on average around 1500 euros a year on their gun, dog and club subscription. In rural communities hunting is a significant source of male bonding and those who object to it will attract hostility or worse (Pierre Leschiera, the shepherd murdered in Castellar, was a notorious opponent of hunting). But is it dangerous? Across France there are about twenty serious incidents a year, sometimes involving a death. In some cases a careless hunter does a Dick Cheney and shoots one of his mates. In others an unwitting walker gets wounded or killed. Dogs are quite commonly victims.

So good advice would be to avoid going down to the woods when the hunters are likely to be about. But for quite a few people that’s unwelcome advice since about the time the guns start a-poppin’ it’s also the beginning of the mushroom picking season. France has some 120 varieties of champignons and gathering them is a favourite autumn pursuit. But it comes with certain risks. First, there’s the danger, as we’ve seen, of being mistaken for game. Since last year hunters are required to wear fluorescent jackets and if you must wander the woods when they’re about it’s a good idea to do the same. One of our Dutch readers told us that during the season he dresses his dog in a bright orange tunic which is both protective and patriotic. Secondly, for the occasional visitor to the countryside, not used to finding his way in the woods, there’s the danger of getting lost. When this happens the gendarmes and CRS – who get called out – are not best pleased. As one officer told me, “These people from the cities have no idea how to remember the route they’ve taken, they get lost, they panic and then call us up on their mobiles – but can’t explain clearly where they are!” I’d suggest a pedestrian’s GPS should be in every mushroom picker’s pocket.

The biggest risk:  eating the wrong kind of mushroom
The biggest risk, of course, comes from picking and eating the wrong kind of mushroom – French has no word for toadstool, the bad guys are simply called champignons vénéneux. The best advice for the absolute beginner is to go out with an experienced picker and learn which varieties are edible, which should be avoided. There are books on the subject but, as Jeremy Hobson points out in his Rural Living in France (reviewed in Reporter n° 120), “The illustrations can be very deceptive with the result that edible and poisonous varieties can appear similar.” If you’ve been mushroom gathering on your own and you’ve got any doubts about your haul go and see the local pharmacist. In villages they’re trained to tell you what’s good for breakfast, what will bring on bellyache, vomiting, diarrhoea and worse. If you’ve not checked and you get these symptoms see a doctor as soon as possible and/or call the SAMU on 15.

So you’ve weighed up the risks (getting shot, lost in the woods or poisoned) and you decide that picking mushrooms is for you. What do you need to know? Those woods offer the best possibilities but you’ll also find the precious fungi in fields and even by the roadside. Locals who know the best places to look won’t usually want to share this knowledge with you but they’ll often give some general advice: the mushroom crop is especially good after late summer rains and (an old fellow in Fayence once told me) they are often abundant after the full moon. They also seem to flourish where there’s been a fire or tree felling. And some practical advice: don’t put your mushrooms in a plastic bag – there’ll be rapid fermentation (ugh!) – but in a straw basket and with different species separated in paper bags. Remember: you can’t be too greedy. The rule is that each picker should take no more than three kilos and in some Var villages there are vigilante patrols out to check on this. Note, too, that any landowner has the right to send you packing if he doesn’t want you taking mushrooms on his property. Don’t argue – especially if he has a gun!

Finally, two useful tips from my colleague Jill Penton-Browne: if you can’t face the labour of picking your own mushrooms just go to your nearest market where you’ll pay usually 20 to 25 euros a kilo; and it’s often the case that mushrooms are rather bland – girolles, I’d say, are the tastiest – so it’s a good idea to cook them in garlic.

The hunting season in the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var opened on September 9th.

From Riviera Reporter 123

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