Photo: Bats in the belfry? Our apartment in the château is on the very top floor. The tower on the left is our guest room, and its twin on the right is the pantry in our kitchen.
I’m a city girl living in the country for the first time, so bear with me on this post, which is about creepy critters.
I was reminded of the story I’m about to tell you when I read Susan Vieth’s excellent post today, “Changing Rhythms” on her blog, A Small Village in France. It’s about returning to the French countryside after a long trip to the states. Her post about the small town French country lifestyle was sweet, and right on target.
She mentioned that no one in France has screens. “There are no screens in the Old World,” she says. “Yes, there are bugs, but they just come and go as they like. Yes, even flies. They haven’t killed us yet. We are seldom worried by mosquitoes…. I bet you couldn’t find a screen in a window for 100 miles around us – maybe 300 miles – and then only in windows of second homes owned by Americans.”
So true. And Susan, about 300 miles away from you there are indeed Americans with screens, and that would be us. But only on our bedroom window. Here is why.
When we first came here, Ron and I had a little nightly dispute over the bedroom window. He wanted to open it wide, and I wanted to just crack it a bit. “There are bats flying around the courtyard at night,” I said, “and they’ll come right in if the window’s wide open.”
If you have a husband of your own, you may be familiar with the eye-roll and the sarcastic scoff. “What a wimp!” those eyes said. And so went our nightly conflict.
Finally, I relented. And that very night, when I got up in the dark to hit les toilettes, I felt something brush across my face.
Surely it couldn’t be. I turned on the light to be sure the coast was clear.
No, there was not a bat. There was a veritable bat fête going on. At least four bats (I didn’t stop for a precise count) were twirling around madly under the beams above our bed.
Needless to say, the wimp dived under the covers, screaming, while monsieur of the rolling eyes grabbed the broom for the chase.
And now, in a happy marital compromise, we have screens on our bedroom window.
In the COMMENTS: The post on dogs elicited many very interesting comments—from dog owners like Natalia (two Yorkies) and Heather of Unexcused Absenses, who has a French dog story of her own. Caterina, I think ‘reserved’ is how I would describe the French, they are traditionally not openly friendly with strangers, as Americans (and their dogs) are. Christine of Pen at the Ready points out the amazing discipline of dogs in restaurants in France, I don’t think you would see that in the states. Lots of interesting viewpoints this week, merci!
By email, Laura Robbins says she visited Charleston and bought one of Rhett Thurman's beautful paintings of France. She rented a house in Charleston with friends that she really liked, and kindly gave me permission to pass it on to other Charleston travelers. The link is here. In other travel news, Lee and Maureen discovered a fabulous 10th century castle, now a hotel and restaurant, two hours north of Nice. It's called Château Trigance, and it's now on my (impossibly long) travel list.
Favorite Reads: We told you recently about Heather Thomas' new ebook, A Practical Guide for European Canal Boat Charters
And for language/Paris lovers, here's a fun article Ron found on The Cut: How Much French Do You Need To Speak to Live in Paris?, inspired by Scarlett Johansson's recent rants about Parisians. By the way the 'defunct blog' he mentions, Stuff Parisians Like: Discovering the Quoi in the Je Ne Sais Quoi
11 thoughts on “Critters in the Countryside”
Yikes – talk about having bats in the belfry 🙂 I would have been absolutely terrified.
We have screens on some of our bedroom windows and if your go to any of the DIY shops you will find the material for making them.
The French mostly sleep with their shutters closed, as they do not have curtains. There is provision for ventilation in the shutters.
I am always the one to be bitten, so I have a screen and in September, I use a mosquito net as well.
You often find screens against the flies on doors which are open during the day here in Burgundy and you can buy electric bug killers as well.
However, there is nothing like the sound of a splat as you squash a fly or wasp on the table when you are eating outside!
No problem with bats and although we have plenty of them they haven’t yet entered through any of our unscreened windows here in France Profonde. It’s the spiders and centipedes the size of mice that get to me. And as we have a lot of brush and stone clearing to do, I am worried about snakes, too. Oh la la!
Dearest Lynn,
Thanks for a good laugh this morning! I too would have to put up screens if bats were such a problem. So far our biggest winged critters are the swallows that wing in and out during the day. Like the bats they love the challenge of zipping around our heads, but at least they do it in broad day light and have no interest in hiding in some unsuspected place until the dark of night. It would have to be screens because I know that I will never be able to pull my shutters closed each night. That’s one French habit I can’t pick up.
xxoo s
So…your guests have to sleep with the bats?
So enjoyed this post Lynn. I have a bug phobia and certainly would not cope well with even a single bat in my boudoir. So felicitations on the bedroom screens. Luckily my husband is in agreement on this matter! I am wondering how we will fare this summer in French rentals without screens. So far using the sheers on the windows has worked in the daytime. Will have to get creative for sure. Bon weekend!
Oh yes, screens are my thing, flies bother me, but nothing like wasps flying around the house, we have lots of those and my kid is allergic to them,we have to keep them out and away.
I noticed the comment above, Katherine writes about spiders and centipedes, can’t those be scared away with lavender? I saw that in the movie “A good year”, may be she can put lavender all over the house and not worry about them anymore 🙂
Have a wonderful day
XOXOXO Ido
I would have crawled under the bed if only I could get under there. We have bats here in Arizona which surprised me. They fly pretty high & occasionally we sit outside to enjoy the evening by the pool & they whip overhead. They eat all the bugs so they are good creatures. They make strange noises but it can be a rather soothing noise. Creepy sounding I know but they are good bug eaters.
I love that chateau, so beautiful & charming Lynn.
I had six bats for an hour in my attic bedroom here in the Languedoc last year. I love bats and just wished they would leave so I could go back to sleep…. which they eventually did.
bonnie
Lynn, we are such on the same page about screens!In fact I think I must be a leading contender for Queen Of The Window Wimps!
My belle mere and belle pere lived on the Danuble;they had wooden vertical shutters which rolled up(in the morning) and down(in the evening,cracked just enough for ventilation).Unfortunately for me,I’m claustrophobic and this wasn’t my preferred way to spend an evening.
My husband and I lived in the Southwest and as Colleen mentioned,bats like the swimming pool.The ones around ours would actually dive bomb and skim the water for gnats and mosquitoes.
That’s when we really became sincere about keeping screens on our windows.Not only for the bats but also for the other assorted creepy crawlies who might decide to pay a nocturnal visit to our ground floor bedroom,especially the spiders(several poisonous sorts) and scorpions.
Thank you for introducing us to Susan Vieth!Her post is lovely and I agree,this week’s ideas about window screens in the Old World was
delightful to read.
PS Your adorable Domino could pose for a book cover!
I’ve spent many screenless nights in France and, luckily, never had an experience with a chauve-souris. While your friend said living without screens hasn’t killed her yet, a window screen campaign was a significant public health issue in turn of the century Asheville, North Carolina. The rates of house fly born diseases such as cholera were drastically diminished after most homes were successfully encouraged to put up screens.