Saturday, June 21, 2008

Wild Animals in the Fontainebleau Forest

So, most people think that INSEAD's main campus in France is in Paris... but they would be sadly disappointed. it's actually in Fontainebleau, a very small (but pretty) town about 45 mins south of Paris, in the middle of the forest, which apparently is the second largest forest in Europe, and the former hunting grounds of the French kings, because it's full of wild animals.

About a week ago, I was driving back home from school in the evening in my little Citroen C3, going about 80 km/h and suddenly, 3 wild boards, one big one ('mom or dad'), and then 2 younger ones ('junior a and junior b') ran out right in front of my car! I was completely shocked... I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could without losing control... the big one was running fast, and cleared my car, then the second one just cleared the front of my car..... but an car incoming on the other side wasn't able to slow down in time, and ... THWAAAP, collided with the boar that just cleared the front of my car. The 3rd boar saw this and run back without crossing the street.

I couldn't believe what I just saw! The car then slowed down and pulled over to the side, probably to check for damage. I was almost shaking.. what if I had hit the boar instead? Or what if the car tried to avoid the big but struck my car instead? And what does one do exactly after hitting a boar? Would you dare go out and try to push the boar back into the forest? He probably has massive interal injuries. Would the mother/father come back and attack you if you tried to move the boar off the road?

After this, I drove very slowly through the rest of the forest....

No comments: