Hunt dinner

Sunday noontime, we went to a repas de chasse, a hunter's dinner, featuring wild boar, in an especially delicious pâté, in a stew, and as grilled steaks, along with soup, salad, cheese, and dessert. Even though we know now to eat with moderation, we still weren't very interested in food on Monday.

Tuesday we took ourselves to the Vallée des Singes (Valley of the Monkeys) for an outing. (Unfortunately, we left the camera at home in the entry—both of us saying I thought you picked it up!) They provide a refuge for endangered monkey and ape species, housing the largest group of gorillas in Europe. The chimpanzee group was rescued from Dutch laboratory when they had to stop testing with chimps. As part of the European endangered species action, they manage the studbook for the captive populations of two endangered monkey species. Their original inspiration was Apenheul in the Netherlands. Although it's been quite a time since we were there, we seem to remember that people-primate contact was rather encouraged at the Apenheul, whereas at the Vallée des Singes, it is actively discouraged. In areas where monkeys were roaming free around us, keepers were present to discourage people and monkeys from interacting directly.

We happened to visit the yellow-breasted capuchins at feeding time and were amazed to see some of them make and use tools to get their food. Given nuts, some of the capuchins would find a flat stone, set the nut on it, then use a smaller round stone to break open the nut; the less clever ones would simply bash the nut on whatever surface was at hand to try to open it. According to the keeper feeding them, only some of the capuchins are clever enough to devise a mortar and pestle for opening their nuts. Away from the group being fed, we saw another capuchin break a branch from a shrub, snap a twig from that branch, strip its leaves, and use the twig to poke into holes in a nearby tree for food.

The Burnt Orchid that we found in the lawn last year still hasn't made an appearance this year, although we keep looking. But the more common Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula) is blooming well along the roadsides now. This is part of a big group in our village:

Since so little has happened around here this week, we'll leave you with pictures of Pogo on a walk:

And Sophie relaxing in the yard: