Update from Paris

[jonesthecurl]

One thing I DO know - despite Warner Brothers cartoons, Hares and Rabbits are not the same thing.

[KoolBak]

Is this a rabbit thread now?

We have lots of bun buns here. Where we hunt in the arid high desert is the habitat of the venerable Black Tailed Jackrabbit...a Hare. Hares are born fully formed with fur; rabbits are born hairless, eyes sealed. Hares have big ole tall ears. Jackrabbits are only in North America and they can haul ass...like 45 mph. See them alot hunting. Not good eating...

Our other big one is the cottontail, a cute lil rabbit. They hide. And are good eating.

The cutest is the Pica..a relative of the rabbit that lives in big mountain rockslides.

There. We're all happy now!

[jusplay4fun]

What's up, Doc?

hares vs. rabbits:

Hares are distinguished from rabbits by their larger size, longer ears, and longer hind legs. They also tend to live alone or in pairs in above-ground nests, whereas rabbits often live together in groups of up to 20 in underground tunnels known as warrens

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/rabbit-vs-hare#:~:text=Hares%20are%20distinguished%20from%20rabbits,underground%20tunnels%20known%20as%20warrens.

[2dimes]

I was hoping someone would finish telling us about his trip to France.

In the interm rabbit discussion suits me. I like the lurnin and It's infinitely better than the third page.

Because I was still under informed, I looked up cotton tails, encyclopedia brittanica wrote they are rabbits. Probably why they are tender to eat.

In the mountains west of here there are some of those pikas. I have enjoyed watching them in the rocks. I didn't know they were rabbits. Their small round ears made me think they were some sort of marmot.

One thing I DO know - despite Warner Brothers cartoons, Hares and Rabbits are not the same thing.

Except Jack rabbits, they are hares.

The white tail Jack rabbits are the wild hares here. There are way more of them in this city than several decades ago. I figure it's because you rarely see dogs roaming around like they used to.

Occasionally someone releases some domestic pet rabbits, they breed like.. rabbits then there are many of them, some people like that and some don't.

In Canmore a touristy Alberta mountain town, the council decided they were a problem mostly because the mountain cats liked to come by and snack on them, someone trapped them all and there was an adoption drive.

There was an industrial area here where a few released pet rabbits resulted in hundreds of them. My bud was saying they contracted something a year or so ago and they are gone now.

[mookiemcgee]

Is this a rabbit thread now?

We have lots of bun buns here. Where we hunt in the arid high desert is the habitat of the venerable Black Tailed Jackrabbit...a Hare. Hares are born fully formed with fur; rabbits are born hairless, eyes sealed. Hares have big ole tall ears. Jackrabbits are only in North America and they can haul ass...like 45 mph. See them alot hunting. Not good eating...

Our other big one is the cottontail, a cute lil rabbit. They hide. And are good eating.

The cutest is the Pica..a relative of the rabbit that lives in big mountain rockslides.

There. We're all happy now!

Do you own/raise rabbits, or did you just mean there are tons of wild rabbits and hares in your neck of the woods?

[KoolBak]

Wild, in the areas we hunt Chukar. Eastern Oregon / Hell's Canyon

Here in the valley it's all escaped fat domesticated rabbits that feed the fat coyotes

[mookiemcgee]

Wild, in the areas we hunt Chukar. Eastern Oregon / Hell's Canyon

Here in the valley it's all escaped fat domesticated rabbits that feed the fat coyotes

My wife keeps and shows rabbits lol, I have 30 rabbits in my garage right now. It's a mini version of a fur breed though so there isn't much 'good eatin' to be had w/them (too many bones, not enough meat). They are also useless for fur purposes, but they are really soft to pet and the neighbors always trying to send their kids over to play with the buns.... don't get any ideas ralf, I live close to a school so you'd still be violating the court order if you came here.

[2dimes]

The Canadian encyclopedia says in 1912 they introduced the Europian or cape hare in Omtario as a game species. Poor buggers don't turn white in the winter.

[IcePack]

Rabbit is so yummy

[Dukasaur]

How was Versailles, Chambord and Angers?

I presume Paris was quiet when you got back.

Yes, Paris was quiet on our last two days in France. So were we, after our long road trip. Went to the Louvre. Managed to eat foie gras three more times in our last 40 hours or so.

Chambord was somewhat disappointing. But the wife liked it. She hasn't been to as many castles as I have, so she's still fairly easy to impress.

Interesting things in Chambord:
[*]The great staircases, designed by Leonardo da Vinci when he worked for Francis the 1st. Leonardo was fascinated with the double helix, centuries before Watson and Crick.
[*]The ovens. There are four great ovens in the kitchen, each of them about 500 cubic feet. I think you could cook a feast for a regiment of cavalry.
[*]The Wolf Pack: An interesting piece of modern art, The Wolf Pack is a life-size statue of a pack of wolves. The entire thing is made from dust bunnies that the artist picked up in the stairwells of the Paris subway. The wolves look dirty and rough, which I think is intentional.

Versailles is beautiful. But overcrowded. Even worse than the Louvre. At least in the Louvre all the bad crowds are going to see Mona Lisa and Winged Victory. If you stay off the beaten path, there are actually chambers in the Louvre that allow near-solitude. In Versailles, the crowds are everywhere. In the chambers, on the stairwells, in the toilettes even. You can't move in or near Versailles without fighting crowds.

Chenonceau: We didn't go inside. The beauty of Chenonceau is the view from the river, so we took a boat cruise and went past. The history of Chenonceau is fascinating reading, but there's no point in getting a bad precis from me when you can look up the full story elsewhere.

Angers was impressive. So many of Europe's castles are effeminate 17th century monstrosities, built mainly for show. Angers was a man's castle, built in the 12th century, when castles were still the centerpieces of war. When you feel the massive walls and close your eyes, you can almost hear the thunder of hooves and the rat-a-tat-a-tat of arrow volleys. The classic fortified-hill-overlooking-the-river, it was occupied in one sense or another since Neolithic times, until eventually the Dukes of Anjou built their enormous fortified home there. From those walls, semen flowed forth that spawned the greatest kings of England and France.

Like Chenonceau, I didn't go inside Angers castle. The exterior is the impressive part. I walked around the walls and thought about the great tragedies of the rise and fall of the Angevin Empire.

Also in Angers is the cathedral of St. Maurice. Very beautiful. My wife reminded me to light a candle for my previous wife. My wife often pays homage to the ghost of her predecessor. It's hard to explain.

Also in Angers, an art school. Several interesting sculptures. Descriptions only in French, but they have signs in English saying "please do not climb on the sculptures." Apparently English-speaking tourists are notorious for feeling a need to mount artwork.

[jonesthecurl]

Last time I went to Versailles, they turned on the fountains (which apparently happened only a few times a year). There was a huge round of applause ... until the stench of stagnant water being sprayed into the air reached our nostrils.