Trivia Question for the Day: Horses, Pigs, and Cows

What breed of horse did Napoleon favor for his cavalry? Today we visited a farm which raises this breed, one of several French breeds which until recent years risked being lost forever (I don’t use the word extinct - because it doesn’t seem like anyone seems to understand the true meaning of extinct). Nowadays thanks to the efforts of breeders who have worked hard to find a way to keep these wonderful horses alive, they’re here for us to admire.

Just as city dwellers are waxing nostalgic for rural life and wish to come back to the villages to rediscover their roots, they are also discovering that some of the farm animals that they may/or may not remember from earlier days are slowly but surely disappearing from the landscape.

Take, for example the Normandy cow i.e. la vache normande that is so often portrayed on the cover of Camembert cheeses or on postcards of Normandy. According to some news stories, the vache normande is making a come-back, but not in the majority of cases. Nowadays, other breeds of cows are considered better milk producers. Cows are imported either from other regions of France of from Holland. (Maybe Dutch cows are happier, therefore they produce more milk?).

And then there’s the Cochon de Bayeux, that very famous Bayeux pig. If you haven’t heard the Bayeux pig, now you have. It’s a black and white pig that has a festival dedicated to it each October in Bayeux, Normandy. It’s even a mascot for one of the local basketball teams. We have yet to attend the famous Bayeux pig festival, but soon ‘tout Paris’ will be there. Not to be missed.