Salon de l'Agriculture-Les Animaux

Oh Sande, why aren't you in Paris now?  All Kelly and I could say was how much Sande would have loved photographing the Salon de l'Agriculture.  We have been seeing signs in the métro that the Salon was coming.

"I'm Coming..."

It is an annual event that is a really big deal in France.  It is a must visit for the politicians courting the farmer's vote.  We saw President Sarkozy live on the French news Saturday morning walking around the Salon talking to all the farmers.  Every region of France is represented.  It includes several buildings with animals, crops and gastronomy from every department of France, including the overseas departments.

I told Kelly that going to the Salon was on my bucket list so he decided to humor me (was he hoping to see some French politicians there?) and we went first thing Monday morning.  As we waited in line for it to open, we chatted with a husband and wife from the Champagne region who are vintners and come every year to the Salon.  It seemed all of France was arriving to see the Salon.  Once inside we could understand why.  As Kelly put it, "It is like the State Fair on steroids!"  The first building was huge and contained the cows, pigs, sheep and goats.  The horses, donkeys, dogs, cats and birds are in a separate building.

One Corner of the Exhibition Hall

We saw baby chicks hatching in incubators.  I hadn't seen that since Kate was in kindergarten.

Kelly thought these kids were a bit reckless to get so close to this goat.  She was a cute goat and looked pretty harmless. 

A Less Threatening Goat

Angora Goats

"Dalmatian" Sheep

Next we headed over to Destination Mouton to see the sheep.  Kelly found some sheep with spotted heads and legs like dalmatians and bodies with thick wool. They were quite unusual.

Leading the Sheep Past a Judge

Weight Stamped on the Back of a Sheep

Then we saw the ring where they weighed the sheep and showed them off to the judges.  It was interesting to watch the handlers try to move the sheep with a rope around the sheep's neck.  They really didn't want to be led.  Their weight was stamped with dye on their backs after they were weighed in a metal cage.







Our favorite animals were the cows.  They must have taken up over half of the exhibit area.  There were some huge bulls.  Kelly was getting close to this one for a picture when it started snorting and  leaned (he said lunged) forward.  It was tied up but Kelly was taking no chances with those horns.  He quickly moved away and told me this bull would have to get his picture taken solo!

"Rampaging" Bull

Each cow had an identifying number on its ear.  The breed, the cow's name, its parents and their identifying numbers, and its owner were listed above each stall.  These cows had a pedigree!

Fancy Collar

Many of the cows had cowbells with beautiful collars.  They even had a cowbell stand to buy your own to take home for your cow.

Cowbells for Sale

French Farmers

We saw men and women grooming their cows before they took them to the show ring to be judged.  Part of the backside was shaved.  The rest of the hair was smoothed with a little rake and then combed into curls.  Then the cows were led on a rope to the ring.  There was nothing between us and those big horns!

Combing the Bull's Hair into Curls

Can you see the calf poking its head out under the mother?

Leading the Bull to the Ring

The owners walked their massive bulls around the ring and then lined up as the judges examined each bull.  The ring was so big that there was a JumboTron so those in the bleachers could see all the "action."

Judge Checking Out the Bulls

The last animals in this building were the pigs.  They were pretty big pigs.  Some seemed to have ears over their eyes and we wondered how they could see.

Look at those ears!

I guess a rope doesn't really stay on a pig's fat neck so instead of leading them like sheep, the pigs are herded.  We watched the handlers open up the pen and let the pigs walk out single file.  Then they directed them to the big pen with the large wooden paddles to keep them going in the right direction.  It seemed to work.

Herding Pigs

We took one look back at the pigs as we headed up the escalator to the next building. 

All we could talk about was how impressive the Salon de l'Agriculture was--and we still had another building of animals to see, let alone the crops and the gastronomy.  Kelly decided that the students should all come to the Salon Thursday morning.  We could not see everything we wanted to in the limited time we had so we look forward to returning Thursday with the students and Kate.