Today on Splash News there’s a photo set called “Wild boars sighting around the property of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Miraval.” This is how desperate the paparazzi staking out their property are getting – they’re taking pictures of pigs. And before you correct me, I looked this up on Wikipedia given the UK/Ireland debacle with Colin Farrell earlier today and boar are technically members of the pig family, so I think it’s ok to call them pigs.
It’s really slow for some reason today and this gives me an excuse to tell the wild boar story that my friends and acquaintances are sick of hearing.
We moved to Berlin about six months ago, and we live about 15 minutes from the center of the city in an area that is near a big forest, but right off a busy street with two lanes on each side.
My husband and I were out walking with my son in the stroller sleeping when I heard a rustling in the trees nearby, right near the road. I thought it was a deer, but I looked over and saw an entire family of wild boar with long teeth and all. There was a big daddy boar, a smaller but still large mom boar and some boarlettes scampering through the forest. I was super scared and jumped back, but my husband was just laughing and told me that boars are common here and not a big deal. I couldn’t stop talking about how amazing it was because I had never seen a wild boar outside of the zoo before.
When we got to the gas station I told the guy working there in my broken German that I saw a bunch of boar and was so impressed, and he said they walk right down the median of the road and that he sees them on the lot near the pumps at night. Boar are to Europe what deer are to suburbia in the US.
The photographers sitting around waiting for something to happen at the Brangelina estate must have been impressed by the boar too if they’re bothering to put up these photos. That, and they’re super bored by the lack of any news or photos of the couple. When you’ve got 35 bedrooms, a moat, and 880 acres patroled by top security experts it’s probably easy to get privacy from photographers. There’s no getting rid of those damn boar, though.
These are the actual photos of the wild boar around Brad and Angelina’s estate.
Riveting. Right.
Ahahahaha…I find this story super amusing. New headline for story : Boars luckier than photogs
😛
Boared. 8)
lol Geronimo! Damn I should have thought of that.
I liked your story, CB. I have family in Germany, and all they ever talk about is the hedgehogs.
LOL celebitchy, I am sure someone else is writing about gossip sites bored that they are psoting news about Boars/Pigs.
“boarlettes” ? 😆
Good one Geronimo!
Just wait – they’ll start strapping minicams to those boars and herding them onto Brangelina’s estate in a desperate attempt to get pics. Paparazzi are pretty much pigs anyway, so it kinda makes sense.
Kaiser that’s right I see those little hedgehogs all the time. They’re called “igel” and are probably a nuisance if you have a garden.
Yes! My aunt has a beautiful garden in Doseldorf (sp?) and she stopped trying to kill/push out the hedgehogs. Now she just captures them and raises them to be “outdoor garden hedgehogs”.
The truth? I’m not even sure what a hedgehog looks like. It’s like a groundhog, right?
Hedgehog – spiky critter
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/atlarge/hedgehog%20015.jpg
Groundhog – not spiky critter
http://www.dailypepper.com/mt/archives/groundhog-16_13.jpg
Here is a supercute picture of a hedgehog. They are little, too. Check out the photos in this google search.
LOL @ geronimo
OMG, do you live near the mountain that david lynch wanted to buy? I live in Berlin and have some friends there. The first time I visited them I saw a boar too. I also had the same reaction, I almost became a heartattack, and my friend could’t stop laughing at me. Don’t be surprised if you also see a fox, I saw one there once.
Wild life with the Jolie-Pitts… What a show!
There’s a story going on in France that says that the villagers get a free drink if they can make the paparazzi buy a false story. It’s more likely to be true than a simple rumour, knowing well how people in those little towns are.
It wouldn’t be surprising if these pigs were guided towards the gates of the estate by some locals as a joke or bet for a free drink or a free game of petanque.
Really, I’ve seen some tough old Frenchies get wild boars to go to the wildest places when I spent an entire summer in a lost village very close to where the Jolie-Pitts are living right now (it was a casual prank among amateur hunters).
I heard David Lynch bought that mountain and is starting a meditation center there. I have to double check. Ok, here’s an article about that. I don’t live near there though. I know what you mean about getting scared. I honestly thought wild boars were only on in remote places before I actually saw one. Also I saw a fox the other day as you mentioned. It was really cute.
Thanks, Geronimo and CB… damn, now I’m going to spend all day looking at pics of hedgehogs.
CB; Went to Berlin for the launch of the new Passat in 1997. My favorite part was shopping at KaDeWe.
Aw, they’re so cute! I always loved the Beatrix Potter book about the headgehog launderess (is that a real word?) Mrs. Tiggy-winkle
Well, CB, I think you were right to be afraid of boars at least I am. Although they are common, they are dangerous. Don’t ever touch a “boarlette”, his mother is probably arround and will chase you. If you are chased by boars, your only exit is to climb in a tree. And finally they cross roads all the time and can do major damages to your car. I have been working in a winery in the south of France, and we had to put the radio in the vines, so they don’t come and eat the grapes. I don’t like hunters, but one of there contribution is to regulate the boar population.
Last time I was in England, waiting for the train in Essex to go to Heathrow to come back to the states a fox sauntered down the tracks right in front of us… it freaked me out a little bit, lol, and I’m originally from MONTANA, I’ve seen alot of wildlife, lol, but there was something about that city fox strolling down the tracks that scared the hell out of me. And yeah, no one else there even looked twice at the little guy.
This is the BEST little post with comments I’ve enjoyed here in ages!! All these awesome little wild animal stories, hedgehogs, boars, foxes, all of it! Just had to pop in and say that. I’m a complete and total wild animal devotee, so anything about animals always gets me all excited…
Oh – Bellatrix, I bet you’re right! Has anyone hear read those Peter Mayle books Toujours Provence and A Year In Provence, those wonderfully hilarious stories of when he bought a country estate in the south of France, and he describes the local people, and the things they love to do? Well, I was immediately reminded of those books when I read your idea about the villagers herding all those boar onto the Jolie-Pitt property as a lark, for a free drink! That so totally sounds like something they’d do, for real.
We have a family of foxes living at the bottom of our garden (in North London). I’m still absolutely enthralled by them (although one of the cubs ate my flip-flop) and we turn into wide-eyed 5 year olds just watching them play. But you’re right, Diva, they’re very common in the city now and people barely give them a second glance.
Oh! Geronimo, you’re so, so lucky! All this talk of England and France makes me yearn to be able to afford to travel right now. I want so badly to go visit my relatives in England, and see & explore London now, as an adult… And see the wild foxes sauntering down train tracks and the hedgehogs and swans and all…
LOL… I sat there at the train telling that fox under my breath, “Don’t come over here, don’t come over here, don’t come over here!” He turned towards us once and I got all stupid excited and said “No! I said NO!!!” lol… my husband just laughed at me. The fox went back the other way and went along his merry way! He was just as disinterested in all the people on the platform as they were in him!
I had a question at the time, though, and still do… do they get hit on the tracks alot? The tracks are a good five foot drop from ground level so I can’t imagine it’s that easy for a little fox to jump straight up that far. I know there’s the other side, but I was just wondering…
I’m going back for three weeks next month… moving for good next year. I love England.
The Swines!!!!
@ Diva. Foxes are probably fine at most train stations as Health & Safety means that most platforms are being upgraded to have accessible refuges under the platforms to allow rail workers to get out of the way of the train in an emergency (it’s where you see the kerb of the platform projecting into the track space).
Unfortunately, they’re far less lucky on roads and dual carriageways where there is a solid concrete barrier in the median strip (most should be designed with underpasses suitable for different animals, such as badgers and otters which are protected species – many are designed not to accommodate foxes though) 🙁
Not just fox and hedgehogs, but badgers and otters, too?? Oh god how I wish I could afford a summer in England with my cousins…
@ Diva, you’re lucky, too, to get to go live in England. My mother went to London last year and said it had become incredibly expensive in England, everything from train fare to groceries, rent, everything, so right now I myself could not begin to be able to afford to move back to England, not now anyway. Perhaps someday…
I’m giving up middle class life to go live poorly in England, lol, but that’s where my husband is, so I do it gladly!
It is very expensive there, and GETTING there is OUTRAGEOUS right now, but one does crazy things for love!
He can’t come here, so I get to go there. It works for me!
I love wild boar. 😀 😀 😀
What a happy thread! Who knew a handful of bored paps and a family of wild boars could result in such loveliness!
Isn’t that Angelina and the kids at the gate? Oh, I kid!
I don’t normally comment on blogs but your post was a real help. Thank you for a great topic, I will be sure to bookmark your site and check it out again. Cheers, Amy xXx.