WARNING: Some people might find some of this content offensive. Perhaps even the title!!

According to the Urban Dictionary, this phrase is a way of responding “Hell, Yes!”.

Phrase employed to sarcastically imply that the answer to the question being posed is indubitably ‘yes’.

I don’t believe there are any bears in the Fontainebleau Forest where we have been taking the dog we cared for on her walks, but something, or more to the point, someone, was certainly using parts of the forest pathway as a toilet.

I mentioned in a previous post that we had noticed loads of toilet paper on the edge of the path we took. Well it became worse.

A few steps more and…

Disgusting.

The locals told us they knew who was doing it. Apparently, it was the gypsies who camp beside the Seine in a disused camping ground, with no functioning toilets. The local Mairie refuses to fix the toilets because the land the camping ground is on is in the flood zone.

So it is a bit of a stand off! Or perhaps, a “squat off”.

Once we reached this part of the walk we were pretty safe, because the area is too open.

As an aside, our current house sit is unusual, because for the past week, Mick and I have been staying here with one of the owners who was recovering from surgery. She was unable to walk the dog or lift heavy things, so we were doing that, and we shared the cooking and enjoyed some nice meals together. It was a bonus for us that she was a retired  ‘wine educator’, so Mick and I had some private lessons with her over several bottles of wine, and we learnt heaps.

The other evening, the owner wanted to join me on a short walk with the dog, and blow me down, we spotted a car right near the favourite ‘poop station’. She insisted she was going to confront the two young men we could see. As we approached the car, we realised there was a third man sitting in the car. She spoke with him and asked him why they were ‘shitting’ in the forest and told them they had to stop. Last year her dog had eaten some of the poop and become very sick. The vet thought she was ‘high’ on marijuana that was possibly present in what she had eaten. The first man explained that they had to poop here because of the lack of toilets where they lived.

The owner’s sons have a good friend in the gypsy camp and she asked the other two if they knew him. Of course they did, so she said to tell him she wanted to see him. The two she spoke to, while I held the dog (who would have given them a nasty fright if she was in danger), were smoking a joint and they told her they had to come here away from the camp because their parents didn’t like them doing it. And obviously, while they were there they did some other ‘business’ too.

I’m not sure that anything will come of the confrontation, but it made the owner feel as though she’d done something. I actually heard them laugh as she made her way back to me and the dog, so I doubt it.

France has just experienced a terrible ‘heatwave’ with temperatures in the low 40’s for three days. It certainly was hot, and because air conditioning is not common at all in France, nor in other European countries, it was big news. Even making the Australian news.

Luckily, Mick and I coped. Once you get into the forest, the temperatures are much lower and it was quite pleasant, but we had to be careful as the dog did become hot quite quickly.

And what a difference a day makes.

Finally we had some rain. Good rain. Most of the night, and on our walk the following morning we had a pleasant surprise.  The toilet paper that had been multiplying over the last few weeks was very wet and was not such an obvious eyesore.

But, it didn’t last long. New paper started to appear once the sun was out.

One other thing we have observed about the Fontainebleau Forest, and then read about in a number of articles including this one, and this one, is the growth of prostitution in the area.

We have seen women sitting on the side of the road, on the edge of the forest, waiting for ‘work’. Women from Romania, Cameroun and Bulgaria apparently are working as prostitutes in the forest, and the locals are not happy. They are not happy because it is very obvious, and its occurring in a place where lots of people like to walk.

At first, Mick and I thought these women were waiting for a lift, but over the last five weeks we have seen the same women in the same spots, just waiting. Sometimes we have seen cars pulled over as well. We do not understand how it actually works, but it is very likely these women are working for someone higher up. The police do not seem to do much about it.

We have really enjoyed our walks in the forest each day, searching out and finding new trails, some even leading to the Seine River. I did get lost (for a short while) on one or two walks, but was confident I could find a cross path I’d recognise. We spotted several wild pigs, two deers and two foxes during our walks as well. I wasn’t too pleased about the wild pigs, but they seemed as scared of me as I was of them, plus I had the dog to protect me.

Sadly, the owners of the house we are staying in left for the UK this morning and they took the dog with them. So that is the end of my walks in the forest.

Mick and I will continue to care for the house and water their plants for almost another week before we leave on the date we initially agreed. Their plans changed as a result of the unexpected surgery and they now must be in the UK for 2 weeks.  We are unable to stay any longer, and it is too short notice for them to get another sitter.

One thing I tell people who get excited about the idea of house sitting is that they must be prepared for plans to change. In other words, agreeing to house sit for someone is not like booking a cruise where the chances of it being cancelled at the last minute are slight. Home owners can get sick or need to change their plans, and if you have flown to the other side of the world to sit for someone, you have to be able to fund an alternate ‘holiday’ if they need to cancel. This is our eighteenth house sit and the first time this has happened. It wasn’t cancelled, but we did need to spend some time in the middle of it ‘on holiday’ elsewhere while the surgery and recovery were managed.

So, to link back to the title of the blog, I pose these questions….

Would I recommend house sitting as a past time? Would I recommend one near the Fontainebleau Forest? Would Mick and I return here to house sit again if we had the chance??

ANSWER

Does a bear shit in the woods??