FRENCH LIFE
Summer Is Almost Here, Time To Move The Sheep
It gets hot under all that wool
A sure sign that summer’s almost here — I saw a Transhumance sign. Transhumance, something I’d never heard of before I moved to France, is the seasonal movement of livestock from one area to another. Here in southern France, this mostly involves moving sheep from lowland fields where the summer heat can be brutal to cooler mountainous grazing spots.
Although many farmers now transport the sheep on trucks, the ancient way of herding them through the village streets has become a popular tourist draw. Just one of the many quirky festivals and fetes that mark summertime in rural France — everything from frogs and goats to chestnuts and cider.
I’d been living in France for a few months when I started seeing La Transhumance posters around the village. Since they didn’t do much to enlighten me, an English-speaking friend filled me in. The sheep would be moved from a field a few miles away —…
