Wild France with Ray Mears (2016): Season 1, Episode 5 - Provence - full transcript

[accordion music]

[Ray Mears] France... for many of us,
that means sightseeing,

shopping, and gourmet cuisine.

But if you step off of the beaten track
and head into the country,

you'll discover a wild side of France
waiting to be discovered.

I really love France.

It's a naturalist's dream.

And the reason for that

is all the different habitats
that you find here.

In this series,
I'm going to explore them

in search of the many hidden wonders



that there are to be found
in Wild France.

I'll be traveling through some
of the most spectacular regions of France,

from the snow-capped mountains

to the rolling plains.

From deep forests...

to arid Mediterranean scrublands.

I'll be exploring
the unique plants and wildlife

that thrive in this unspoilt wilderness,

and the secrets that are hidden
deep within it...

That's amazing.

On my adventure through Wild France.

[Ray]
This... Well, this is Provence.

It's an area well known to the British.

We think of it
as a place of lavender fields



and beautiful, quaint villages,
but it's much more than that.

Provence lies in the south of France.

I'm in the Luberon National Park
right in the heart of the region,

home to a typical
Mediterranean landscape.

From a naturalist's perspective,

this is one
of the most exciting regions of France.

You find 30% of France's biodiversity
in this area.

An arid place, and one
that I simply can't wait to explore.

It's a dry landscape, and yet
its appearance changes at every turn,

almost like being
in three countries at once,

and that's what
I'm here to experience today.

Everywhere you go in this region,
you notice this green scrubland

that has adapted to survive
the high temperatures of the summer

and the long periods of drought.

This is the garigue forest
that you find on top of Provence,

and the alkaline soil
is ideal growing conditions

for all the plants around me,

and it's the great drawback
of television

that you can't smell this landscape,

but let me tell you,
it's incredibly aromatic.

Around me, I'm surrounded
by plants giving off scents,

like the box,
and there's thyme and rosemary.

Look at this wild rosemary
growing here.

[sniffs]

And the scents in these plants
are intensified

by the warm Mediterranean climate.

When you smell this.
[sniffs] Ooh!

Bring me some lamb to cook with it,
you know.

It's amazing.
It's like one giant herb garden,

and the aromatic chemicals
that these plants give off

act as a deterrent to each other.

They help define the territory
that each plant occupies,

and so you get
this wonderful rock garden effect,

where you can easily move
between the plants.

It's wonderful.

Look at that. Everywhere you look here,
there's something interesting to see.

That's an amazing thing.

That is the nest of a praying mantis.

Isn't that incredible?

Put it back.

I'm beginning my exploration of this area
with a steep trek up into the hills

in search of an extremely rare bird
that I've been told is living here.

This is a very secret location.

In fact, we've been asked to disguise
in our imagery exactly where we are.

And what I'm looking at
is the nest of a Bonelli eagle.

It's a... a magnificent bird,

and it's a bird
that has been in decline in France

because of the way
the land has been used.

A combination of factors...

Overgrazing,

uh, the arrival of myxomatosis

has led to a decline over years
of the rabbit population

and of the partridge,

which were key prey species
for this particular eagle.

Today,
efforts are being made to change that

by improving the agricultural practice

and increase the population
of partridge and rabbits.

They're not reintroducing the bird.

They're just creating favorable conditions

so that birds that pass by
might choose to stay and nest,

which is exactly what's happening here.

Bonelli nests
are usually built on cliff faces,

although some have been found

high up on electricity pylons
and tall trees.

The birds mate for life, but only produce
one or two offspring at a time.

It's thought that there are
two youngsters in a nest here.

This time of year is
when the young leave the nest,

and at the moment,
I can see no movement on the nest,

but the cave is quite deep,

so it could be
that the chick is further in,

or it might have already have left.

Difficult to say, but right now,
it's one of those frustrating moments.

In the right place,
come a long way to be here,

no bird.

So it's just a matter
of sitting patiently and waiting.

The eagle chicks will remain
in or near the nest for up to two months

and are fed by both parents

on a diet
of small live mammals and birds.

And during the summer months,
lizards are also hunted.

With no movement in the cave, it appears
that these chicks may have left already.

But just as I'm thinking
about giving up...

I see it.

Oh, look at that. That's wonderful!

Right above the nest,
out in the open on a ledge,

is the juvenile bird.

What a great sight.

It's come out of the nest,

and it's making its way
out into the world.

How exciting!

They always look
like they've got baggy trousers on.

[laughs]

Eagles have such amazing posture.

Their wings, very regal.

Quite a small head,

makes the chest look large.
Magnificent bird.

I wonder what's going
through the mind of that young bird.

It's left the nest,
it's up there on a ledge,

posturing as only an eagle should.

Observing the world.

Beginning its great adventure of life.

And what things will it see?

Eagles have this amazing ability to soar.

Don't you just wish you could do that?

It's looking straight at me.

Wonderful sight.

Gosh, that's a glorious bird.

When the young birds finally leave
their parents' nest,

they will move several kilometers away
to avoid competing for food.

Now, the chick's just hopped up
onto a higher ledge.

It's gone into the shade,

and I can't blame it.

It's a very hot day,
and I am, quite frankly, cooking here,

so I'm going to do just the same.

I'm going to give myself some cover, too,
from the sun

with a waterproof jacket.

Just try and arrange little bit of...
a bit more shade.

I look away for a second,

but as soon as I look up,
it gets even better.

Here comes the adult.

Got it in the scope. Wonderful.

Look at that soaring sight.

Lovely. Look at that.

There you see the white and black
markings underneath

and that very distinctive white blaze

just below the shoulders
of the bird's back.

Delicately fingered wing tips.

Very distinctive of the Bonelli eagle.

And that straight edge
to the lower edge of the wing.

Wonderful. Oh, that's really good.

For that bird to thrive here,

it means that everything else further
down the food chain has to be right,

and that is a bright future
for a beautiful part of France,

and a brighter future

for one of the most magnificent denizens
of the skies.

It's exciting watching eagles.

I could stay here all day,
but there's still so much more to see

as I continue my journey.

Provence is the hottest region
in the whole country,

receiving nearly 3,000 hours
of sunshine a year.

The Mediterranean climate has allowed
this iconic plant to thrive here.

This really is the picture postcard view
of Provence,

these incredible,
beautiful lavender fields,

full of insects
and the buzzing of bees.

The Romans were the first to recognize
lavender's cosmetic benefits,

using it to perfume their baths.

And that's where the name comes from,

the Latin word lavare,
meaning "to wash."

The scent you get from lavender flowers
is incredibly pungent.

It's so strong, you only have to run
your fingers through it...

[sniffs] to receive that lovely aroma,

but if you try to smell it
a second time straight afterwards...

[sniffs] it's much weaker.

In fact, sometimes,
you can't smell it at all,

and that's because the molecules in it
interfere with our olfactory sense.

It's also the reason that people
who like lavender scent

sometimes use too much by mistake.

They apply it,
can no longer smell it, and reapply it,

not realizing it's already on.

The fragrant Provencal air attracts
many insects,

including the peculiar-looking
praying mantis.

It may be small,
but it's a formidable predator.

Using its arms like razor blades,

it can feast on prey
three times its size.

And that's
not the only unusual animal here.

As I head further down the valley,

there's an extraordinary surprise
waiting for me,

straight from the pages of prehistory.

I really like to look at the ground to see
what animals have been moving around,

and I can see here
the very distinct tracks of a rhinoceros,

obviously a different species
to those that we can follow today.

I can brush out some
of the accumulated detritus

that's filling the track there,

but you can see, here's the rear pad,
and here are the side toes.

There, and this is the nail
of the large central toe, just there.

They're really clear.

I mean, that's fascinating
to see tracks from 30 million years ago.

Millions of years ago,
this limestone rock was actually mud,

situated on the edge
of a large, shallow lake.

Animals wandering
through the mud left footprints

that were baked hard in the sun.

When the terrain flooded, the prints
were covered with sediment again,

preserving them perfectly.

There are tracks all over the place.

There are
quite a lot of antelope-like tracks.

There are some with very long dew claws
showing, moving across the slope.

This prehistoric site
would be sealed off in the UK,

but here in France, you can just stumble
across discoveries like this,

and it's what makes walking
through this landscape such a joy.

And it's a reminder of just
how much the Provencal landscape

has changed through time.

Today, it's hard to imagine mud
here in such an arid place.

This incredible landscape
reminds me of places in Utah.

It feels like one of
the high American desert landscapes,

but it's not at all natural.

This is actually the remains of a quarry,

and what people were quarrying
is this stained earth that you see here.

It's ocher.

It's actually a very fine clay,
holding together particles of sand.

These mines date back to the 1870s

when demand for ocher was fueled
by the French Impressionists.

But it has been used
since prehistoric times

to paint some of France's
most famous cave paintings.

If you want to make ocher,
you need granite, the right climate,

a very slow flow of water,
a slowly evaporating sea,

and later on, acidic conditions,
created by a large mangrove swamp,

where the leaves dissolve
to cause acidic conditions.

All of that and you let it cook
for about 150 million years,

and you might end up with this,

what a local expert described to me
as meringue topped with strawberry cream,

a very French opinion
of the landscape.

The ocher comes in different colors.

You have white, yellow, red,
and even a violet color.

And that's all to do

with the concentration of iron oxide
within the ocher.

The acidic conditions would change
the concentrations

by dissolving it out of one place
and redepositing it in another.

When you get strong red like this,

it means
there's a very high iron content,

and, in fact, occasionally,
in the underlying geology,

you'd get fissures formed,

and if iron-rich water
seeped into those areas,

it could eventually become iron like this.

This incredible strata of iron stone,

and this was used locally
to produce iron, the metal.

Even the pipes that were used here
to wash out the ocher

were made from local iron.

I'm meeting David Challier,
a local geologist.

He's going to show me how they use

the small amount
of rain that falls here

to extract the ocher pigment
from the clay.

So this is the rock we can crush.

[Ray] Oh, I see

[David]
It's quite easy to do.

You have water and shake it to mix

and to...
to extract ochers from the sands.

You let it settle down,
and you have the pure ocher.

[Ray] OK.

So it takes one complete year
to extract the ocher.

- A year?
- A year, yeah.

Because you wash when you have water.

As you know, we are in Provence,

and you don't have water all the year.

[Ray] So it takes a year because you have
water in the winter and the spring...

[David] Yes.

[Ray] You use that to wash
the sand out of the ocher, let it settle,

then you leave it through the summer
to evaporate until it's hard.

So this is the sand?

This is the sand.

And this is the water
with ocher in suspension?

Exactly.

The ocher here may no longer be mined,

but this vibrant color

will remain a part of the rich landscape
for years to come.

As the sun starts to set here,
it's the perfect time to settle down

and look for an animal
I've been searching for

all the way across France.

I've come out to this field
with the hope of spotting wild boar.

All the way
around the edge of this field,

including here in front of me,

there's the sign where boar
have been rooting around.

It's a perfect place to sit and watch.

First thing is I'm going to set up
my scope at a comfortable height,

and then I'll set my net to suit it.

This is a good vantage point.

I can see across the field,

I can see down to the right
and down to the left,

and I'm still tucked into the shadows.

As the air cools, which
I don't think it will very much today...

But if it were to cool,
cold air running down

will run down into the valley,
and so the other side of that dip,

there shouldn't be any scent from me
reaching any boar that come out.

I keep an elastic band on here

so that I can anchor that like so,

and, uh, to be honest,
this is a lot more camouflage

than you really need to watch wild boar,

but with the camera crew behind me,
there shouldn't be too big a problem.

Perfect.

It's just a case of sitting and waiting.

The heat could work against me.

It might be that they won't come out
until way into darkness,

but I'm going to take a chance.

As the day turns to dusk,
my patience is finally rewarded...

Sanglier.

There's a young sow there and piglets.

[laughs] That's a lovely sight.

Three little tails like little dodge 'em
cars sticking up above the grass.

And in boars,
it's a matriarchal society.

It's the sows that are in charge,

and they even share responsibility
for the weaning of the...

of the piglets.

So here are some more boars coming
across the field from the right there.

Great to see.

Very charismatic animal.

When the piglets are born,

they have these incredible stripy spots
on their bodies.

They're a wonderful camouflage
for their protection,

and as they mature,
they start to lose those.

One of them still has the spots,

and the other two,
well, they've already quite faded now.

The females of the group, sows,
live together with their young,

whilst the males live a solitary life,
except during the breeding season.

At dusk, the animals
come into clearings like these

to dig in the ground
for roots and bulbs,

using their long, rubbery snouts.

They're omnivorous, which means
they'll eat just about anything.

Now, a lot of people
are scared of wild boar.

You hear stories
of how dangerous they are,

and, of course,
they have the capacity to cause injury,

'cause they have
these tusks that are very, very sharp.

But, really,
they're shy, retiring animals.

They don't want confrontation.

The problems come with wounded animals
essentially after hunting,

and that's a whole different ball game,

and you can understand why.
It's all to do with fear.

But mostly going
about their everyday life,

they disappear,
and you don't see them,

unless you take the time
to come and look for them.

And, uh, only if you were
to get too close to the piglets

might a sow warn you off.

But other than that,
they're really not a great threat.

As the day draws to a close,
so too does my time in Provence.

It's great to watch.

The temptation in France, of course,

when the sun comes down
on a hot day,

is to look for a little bistro
to enjoy some French gastronomy,

but, actually, I can't think
of anything better to do

than to come out on the edge
of a field and watch the wild boar.

[music playing]