6 Ranch Podcast
France to Texas with Baptiste Marchais
Baptiste Marchais, a French expat in Texas, bridges the gap between French rural traditions and Texan modernity. He shares the rich heritage of the French countryside, challenging the stereotype of France as a purely urban nation. We see his transformation from a French advocate to a Texan hunting entrepreneur. His passion for both cultures and the outdoors highlights the connections forged through shared interests despite cultural shifts.
Baptiste compares hunting and hospitality in both countries. He highlights the allure of French wildlife for Texan hunters, while also revealing the differing societal values that distinguish France and America. His story goes beyond hunting; it's a tale of cultural exchange, freedom, and the enduring spirit of rural communities worldwide.
Check out the new DECKED system and get free shipping.
Follow Baptiste on INSTAGRAM.
Baptiste Marchais, a French expat in Texas, bridges the gap between French rural traditions and Texan modernity. He shares the rich heritage of the French countryside, challenging the stereotype of France as a purely urban nation. We see his transformation from a French advocate to a Texan hunting entrepreneur. His passion for both cultures and the outdoors highlights the connections forged through shared interests despite cultural shifts.
Baptiste compares hunting and hospitality in both countries. He highlights the allure of French wildlife for Texan hunters, while also revealing the differing societal values that distinguish France and America. His story goes beyond hunting; it's a tale of cultural exchange, freedom, and the enduring spirit of rural communities worldwide.
Check out the new DECKED system and get free shipping.
Follow Baptiste on INSTAGRAM.
So the problem, I will say, is for me, France doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:The country France, what it used to be doesn't exist anymore. The. French culture doesn't exist anymore. It's just we're like a tiny amount of people making it, you know, keeping it alive, but we're not enough. And someone people ask me a lot of time do you miss France? And my answer is the same I was missing it even when I was living there these are stories of outdoor adventure and expert advice from folks with calloused hands.
Speaker 2:I'm James Nash and this is the Six Ranch Podcast. This episode of the Six Ranch Podcast is brought to you by DECT. That's D-E-C-K-E-D. If you don't know what that is, dect is a drawer system that goes in the bed of a pickup truck or a van and it'll fit just about any American-made pickup truck or van. It's a flat surface on top and then underneath there are two drawers that slide out that you can put your gear in, and it's gonna be Completely weatherproof, so I've never had snow or rain or anything get in there.
Speaker 2:There's also a bunch of organizational features, like the deco line, and there's boxes that you can put rifles or bows or tools All different sizes. There's some bags and tool kits. There's a bunch of different stuff that you can put in there. But the biggest thing is you can take the stuff that's in your backseat out of your backseat and store it in the drawer system and it's secure. You can put a huge payload of a couple thousand pounds on top of this deck drawer system. There's tie downs on it so you could strap down all your coolers and your four-wheeler and whatever else you've got up there. It's good stuff. This is made out of all recycled material that's a hundred percent manufactured in america, and if you go to deckedcom six ranch, you'll get free shipping on anything that you order. This show is possible because companies like DECT sponsor it, and I would highly encourage you to support this American-made business and get yourself some good gear. Baptiste Marchais, am I saying that right? Yeah, you got it. Okay, I'm proud of myself.
Speaker 1:You got it first time. That's really rare.
Speaker 2:Dude, you're an interesting guy. Dude, you're an interesting guy. Uh, I think that you are an incredibly rare human being, that you are from france, you're living in texas and you're working in hunting and and really bridging those two places together.
Speaker 1:Tell me how that started okay, so that's a long story, but basically I've been a hunting YouTuber in France. You know I've been famous for like hunting and fishing video and all kind of outdoor thing on YouTube. Let's say that I become one of the biggest countryside conservative channel in in the french youtube because I had 300 000 subscribers, but in france we are only 68 million, so it's pretty big. You know, it's kind of like have a 1 million subscribers channel in usa. So when everything start to really work and I started to be, you know, to become famous, I started to be invited in a lot of tv show and stuff talking for the you know country people have. You know, like, can I become a face of the, the French countryside? Because I know here for a lot of American it's something hard to imagine. But France it's a very country country you got me. It's like a very rural country and I know I have the pictures of Paris, but Paris is just a really small part of France, you know, and it's it's a kind of like Dallas for for Texas, you know. You know you can't tell that Dallas is really speaking for Texas. So is Paris for France. So this is the biggest hunting country in Europe. Actually, we got a 2 million hunter in France. So the hunting is in the french tradition since forever, but nobody really it's not like here in usa, the country people in france that didn't had any part of the media, you know, they didn't have any activities in the social media, in the youtube or on the tv or something. So when I start, that was kind of like a first and that's why it became viral so quick.
Speaker 1:And I was already living between France and Texas because I used to be a professional sportsman and I discovered Texas in 2017, coming for a competition, a bench press competition actually and I just discovered Texas kind of like by. That was random, you know. I used to travel a lot and like my coach just uh, tell me to come to this competition, who was in Arlington, texas, and I discovered that space and I kind of like fell in love with it and start to come, uh, you know, more often and longer each time. So I used to spend like three months a year, then four and six, then I definitely moving in 2022 and I had a lot of hunting and fishing activities there. I had a lot of friends, you know, doing hunting and different hunting and fishing, invited me everywhere and a lot of different companies in France like we sell, or in Europe in general we sell hunting trips. They were contacting me and asking me do you have any contact for that kind of hunting in Texas or that kind of fishing in Texas? We would like to add it to our catalog. And I was giving all this contact and at one moment I was thinking, well, what am I doing? Why am I not doing that myself? You know like, since I got all this contact and all this opportunity, let's do it.
Speaker 1:So I built this hunting trip company. It is called ChasseauxTexascom, which just means huntingtexascom in French, and so we're offering some all-inclusive trip in Texas for French people. So it's not only for French people but let's say it's specialized about French speakers. So it could be French, canadian, belgian guy, switzerland, france you know the old African guy, the old French speaking world, and because of my notoriety, you know, I can advertise it really good and become a good company.
Speaker 1:And now we're offering like a lot of different activities. So I'm guiding people for a lot of things here. I'm doing a bit of tourism too, for make them discover the like, the Texan rural culture. Now we go visiting some ranch, seeing some rodeo going in, some barbecue restaurant and stuff. I try to. I try to bring them in the real, in the real Texas, in some small town, in the countryside, everything that the tourists usually don't see. See. Then I also offer a lot of different hunting activities. So the mad, the biggest things we we're doing is like the night hunting, the thermal hunting, because it's something was illegal in france, um, and basically I try to offer a lot of activities that they can't do over there. So we do the crossbow hunting too was illegal too in france. We do the terminal thing to the helicopter hog and thing, and of course you can't do that in europe. I mean, I don't even know if you can do that anywhere else than in south usa.
Speaker 2:But wasn't the, wasn't the crossbow invented in france?
Speaker 1:it is yeah, yeah, but you know, a lot of hunt, of the hunting uh tradition here in us come from the first french in the 18 and 19 centuries who came from the north. All the french trappers actually like by example. Trap is a french word and it literally means something you open and you fall on it, and so trapping the trappers is a french culture that the french bring into us, working with the fear and something. So a lot of these guys just install themselves in us, you know, and starts to dealing fear and you know, uh, building hunting camp and stuff and and no, I can't tell when I see your hunting sometime.
Speaker 2:You got this heritage from our, you know, ancestral hunting culture french food and and tex, tex-mex, texas food are some of my favorite cuisines in the world, you know, and and the one that that I also have to include in that is the French Creole food in new Orleans. Uh, it seems like whenever you blend French cooking with the cooking traditions of another culture, something arises from it. That's really special every time, and I do firmly believe that, if you look over the whole world and the cooking traditions of the whole world, there's no country that has mastered cooking in a way that France has. But it's still. When you infuse it with cooking traditions and ingredients of another culture, it's incredible. It's incredible. How do folks from France react when you take them out for some Texas barbecue and they see like a giant beef rib? Or you know some smoky pork ribs and you know this sausage that's been smoking for 18 hours, and things like that.
Speaker 1:So they love it. In France a lot of people got this um pictures of the junk food in America like, uh, that USA is a country you can't have any good food and everybody is eating just hamburgers and you know shitty stuff, like everybody is eating mac and cheese and stuff. And so when they came with, when they come with me and I bring them into real good place, good restaurant and you know good Texan restaurant, because Texas is one of the states in the US who got a real food culture. You know what I mean, like Louisiana, you know there is some states like that who have like a whole culture on food and Texas is one of them. And so the first thing that is covered in that you can find some really good product. In covering that you can find some really good product.
Speaker 1:In texas you can find some really good meat. Uh, nine farm on 10 in texas, nine range on 10 in texas of less than 200 cows. So a lot of farm in texas, a lot of ranch in texas are like small, small cow um arrays and and you know it's not these pictures we have of giant industrial farms. It's not like that in Texas. And that's the first thing which shocked the French people when they come here with me, until they love that, because you have to understand that my clients, they're the rural people in France, that's really rural people. So they really care about the food, they really care about food, they really care about you know cuisine. So discovering a totally you know new culture who have his own culture, a cuisine culture and and and was like. Some of things are similar of what we do, but in another way. The smoke part, the smoking part, is really different, that than the smoking you can have in France. So they love it. They love it and it's a.
Speaker 2:It's a good surprise for them each time you know, you, you bring up some really important things that I want to talk about, and that is the difference between city France and rural France. And and one of the reasons that I was really interested in having you on the show is you are very different from the stereotype that Americans have in their mind. When they think of a Frenchman, they might think of somebody who's in Paris who is probably rude to outsiders. These are some of the stereotypes, and I'm not that that they're right or wrong, that's just kind of what americans think. But when you bring somebody from one rural place in the world to another rural place in the world, there's a tremendous number of similarities that people have in common every single time exactly so I, I had traveled all over the world for all over the world for hunting.
Speaker 1:I've been in af, I've been in Africa, I've been in Russia, north Russia, a couple of times. You know, and I can't tell you, that's something I tell to all my cowboys, friend. Or you know, all my rural, rural friends, I say you and I and you, jeremy, you're way more, you're way closer that that this Russian trappers I'm hunting with in north russia.
Speaker 1:On your biological, on your way of life, on the, your religion, you know, on, really, on the whole, your values, you were so more, you're way closer to him than any guy from brooklyn was an american guy you know actually, when I see you, when I see my, my texan friend, when I see all these people I'm hanging out with, you know, and I saw, like some new yorker or los angeles guy or you know, that kind of californian guy, what I'm like, nobody can even tell you're from the same country. You know, like it's like the, the, the difference between y'all are gigantic. And so it is in France, like I'm way closer than you. You know, even if we come from different countries and we've been born and raised in different countries, I'm close to any Parisian guy. You know we have nothing in common with these people. So the point you bring is important. So the point you bring is important, that's real. Let's say, the Western world, rural culture, has really a lot of things in common, the values first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, In World War I and World War II, huge portions of the population of men in France were killed. Yeah, how does that affect who France is today? Does France continue to feel those scars in ways that are different from the way people do in America?
Speaker 1:Yeah, different from the way people do in america. Yeah, yeah, so about for people to understand the numbers. Uh, usa lose 117 000 soldiers in world war one and france lose 10 times more, 1 million 700 people on a country who was only 40 million people. So, um, one man of four, like a quarter of the men who was in age to fight, died on this war. So that's gigantic. And so who died on this war?
Speaker 1:The tougher guys, and I know when I say that, some people are like doesn't really understand that Like no, if you're the tougher, you're supposed to survive. Well, if you say that you'll probably never be on a battlefield Because you know, you know I come from military family and I can, and I know, you know that you know the bravest, you know they go first, they take the risk. You, you know they do the job and so when you do the job, the risk is, you know, is bigger. And especially on that war was like a trench war and a lot of fight was like um, um, body fight, you know, like close, close, close fight. Yeah, so, um, and who was saying to the world and that was a rule, people to, you know, because the borders, you know, have some contact, of some money to be on the less risky place or just not going to war or something. So yeah, he made a big scar on the french genetic um patrimony. Is that? Is that right?
Speaker 1:yeah oh, you know what I meant, yeah, uh, then world war ii come, not so much after, you know, and that's part of the reason I know it's a little bit uh, deep in his history. But just because you bring that point, under World War II, when the French surrendered to Germany, a lot of people think that the French just lost the war. They were losing all the battle maybe, or something. That's why they surrendered. But that's not right. The moment the French decided to surrender, we had only a couple of hundred deaths difference with Germany. We were winning as much battles as we were losing.
Speaker 1:But the general was in charge of France just said that we can't lose as many people as we did in World War I to win this war. France will may win the war against Germany in second time, but with what price? You know at what cost losing, at what cost exactly? Losing just everything else. And the thing is, back in the day, in the beginning of the 20th centuries, people was doing five, six, seven kids. Uh, I mean at the at the end of the 19th centuries. But more we, you know, because in the time less children, people were doing. So the, the guys, the, the, this general say the, the france doesn't have the born, like the burning machine, you know, to rebuild all this human after that. So even if we won, if we had won, the window, that war, we will probably france will probably just, you know, disappear because they will, that will. The price will be, the cost will be so high in human being.
Speaker 2:That makes so much more sense than the story that we learn in history here and the stigma that goes with what a lot of Americans think about French military. If you think about it from that perspective, it's like we're starting with so many fewer men and the military is so hurt from this war that's, you know, just 20 years previous. That's really significant. You can't restock a military that quickly when you've lost, you know, two out of every or one out of every 20 people in your first world war. And then the reluctance to feel that type of pain again that soon, I mean that would be incredible. I don't think anybody can blame you or blame that general for making those decisions Like that's a healthy decision for the country.
Speaker 1:It is. So it's complicated because when they decide to collaborate with German-Hungarian health or decide to collaborate with germans, also decide to collaborate with sending the jews and something. So you know, the cost was still high for france and that's why, like my grandfather by example, I'm a good example for that, because my family is really part of this history. My grandfather is one of the most decorated officers in the 20th century in France. He was a military when he was born in 1913. So his father, my grand-grandfather, did the World War I and raised him, and so he was in the military when France surrendered and he deserted the army with his company and started a resistance web.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that right? Like a resistance movement with all the soldiers. There's such a resistance movement and John the biggest resistance movement, and so he became a leader of the resistance and he starts fighting against the german and I mean, I got all his, all his history. You know all his military uh paper, I don't know you name that, but you know who said everything you said and why you get, you got these medals and stuff and I, I, I read everything and basically some of these guys, some of these patriotic friends, french, that's to continue to fight, you know, but from inside, and like when the american come, basically when the d they arrive. You know, my grand treasurer, one was one of the ones who would eliminate the field for the parachutist to come. Basically, though, everybody was working together, and France will not be free without the help of the inside resistance. That was really a joint work between the Allied and the resistance.
Speaker 2:That's an incredible piece of history. And you know, for these American troops. Think about how much harder it would be to make that landing on D-Day if you didn't have assets on the ground to collaborate with. And then you know, I've fought in war, I understand a little bit about it. If I didn't have the support of my government to do that for supplies, for food, for munitions, for information that would be infinitely more difficult, infinitely more difficult. That is an incredible story. So did he end up surviving the war?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he's been on two other wars after that the French-Vietnam War, you know, within 10 years before the US Vietnam War, and he's been on the Algerian War too. So he did these three wars. And he died in 2002. That was a really, really tough guy.
Speaker 2:What was his name? André.
Speaker 1:André.
Speaker 2:Marché, andré Marché, really tough guy. What was his name?
Speaker 1:andre, andre bachis marchand, andre marchand. Okay, yeah, yeah, but he's my first name I I didn't know if, if bachis was, was a family name?
Speaker 2:yeah, no, that's my first name. Marchand is my last name. Yeah, that's, uh, that's absolutely incredible. So did you have any desire to go into the military yourself? So?
Speaker 1:no, I mean, the thing that happened to me is when I was younger, when I was 15, I just fell into high-level sport and it just you know anyhow I was about to do before. You know, everything changed when I become a sportsman and I just dedicate my life for that during a big part of my life. So I didn't do any, any study or something you know. After high school I start competing at a high level and I start working as a bouncer on the weekend just to get some extra money, because at the beginning that was hard to live with.
Speaker 2:With the sport, you're a monster, human. If I was at a bar and you were a bouncer, I would be so well behaved yeah, I mean, I mean, and another thing is I got some vision trouble.
Speaker 1:So if I will be in the military, that will not be as a fighter, so that will not interest me really, but I still try to. You know, like, um, you know, carries, that hair, that legacy you know from from my grandfather on the values and on tell the history, and you know, uh, keeping the french tradition, that's, that's, it's a part of the fight, even if it's not I mean, I know it's not a real fight, but you know what I mean no, I do good for you.
Speaker 2:Tell me about what. What hunting is like in france?
Speaker 1:so basically, for understanding holes, what's going on in France, you have to understand how our government works, because basically doing anything traditional is fighting against government, because we got the most socialist state in the world right now. So I can't tell you how hunting was, but what hunting is now is basically super, super restricted because of the government. It's really hard. We have a very, very hard gun regulation in France that's practically impossible to. So nobody can carry a gun in France. That's a first. And when I say nobody, I will talk about nobody. Like if you're not a police officer in function, you can't have a gun in the street or in your car at all, for any reason. You can't be a bodyguard, you can be a military, you can be anything you want. Nobody except the criminal, of course. But I mean nobody will respect the rules. Rules can carry a gun in France. So that's first. Even when you go hunting, if you have your rifle in your car, you have to have your rifle in load, with the ammunition out of the magazine and with the lock on the trigger. Wow, okay, to be sure you're not going to use that for defending yourself, okay. So that's the first.
Speaker 1:The second thing is um, owning a gun is really restricted too. So for hunting we really we really have, uh we have poor choice of gun we are allowed to use for hunting. You know, uh, you can't use any AR. It's totally illegal. There's a lot of caliber was illegal too. You can't use any handgun. Every handgun is illegal too, so it's only kind of like deer rifle with. You know, you can have a high sorry, I forget the name you can have like a big magazine, you know, like okay yeah, so it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's 10 is a maximum, 10 round is the maximum you can have on a magazine. So there is a lot of rules like that and, um, even the the way to hunt is really restricted. So you, the, you have to have a hunting license, but it's really hard to get. It's with an exam. We ask a lot of time, a lot of money and the exam is really hard. And until after that, when you got your hunting license, um, you have to respect a lot of of rules and you have to pay for authorization to hunt and you have to pay for tag, even for the pest, which make no sense.
Speaker 1:Like in france, we got the same hog problem than here. Okay, we gotta overpopulate it, you know hogs everywhere, so they destroy the farm, you know, destroy the crop, make some accident on the road, everything. So the same problem that you can experience here. Okay, but you still have to pay to hunt them. So that's so stupid. So, basically, killing a hog cuts you like. For each hog you have to pay around it depends on the region you are, but around 50 bucks for each hog you kill, even if it's damaging your crops and destroying.
Speaker 2:Oh so I'll tell you an example. Okay, let's say you're a farmer, you're in your tractor, you're working and you see a pack of Even if it's damaging- your crops and destroying your land.
Speaker 1:So I'll tell you an example. Okay, let's say you're a farmer, you're in your tractor, you're working and you see a pack of hogs running your crop. Okay, you don't have the right to shoot them. That's bonkers, even on your own property.
Speaker 2:Now, something you and I were talking about recently is the wolf issue that we're having here in Eastern Oregon is the wolf issue that we're having here in Eastern Oregon and it's happening all over the United States and is going to increase to new areas as these wolves expand their territory. So even if you live in a place that doesn't have wolves right now, if it's suitable, or even marginally suitable wolf habitat, eventually wolves are going to get there and they're going to cause problems where you live. There's lots of sheep that get raised in france and you're saying that the the wolf predation issues are a big problem there as well yeah, so basically depend the mountain.
Speaker 1:You are in france, so when you're on the mountain part you could be in a wolf territory or you can be in a bear territory. Bear are not really overpopulated so they cause damage, but it's really sometime, you know, and generally the dogs can, you know, get the bears out of the shepherd, so it's pretty okay. I've been in a lot of mountains with bears and talking with a lot of shepherds and they all are pretty okay with the bear, not all of them. Some complain, of course, because they lose some animals, but the biggest issue is with the wolf, of course, because they're protected too and more Wolves disappear. At the end of the 19th century in France they were totally gone.
Speaker 1:They reintroduced wolves recently, like 10 or 15 years ago, taking wolves from East Europe and reintroducing them, and now they're running amok. Of course they're running amok, of course they're out of control, you know, and they go eat on every, you know, uh, shepherd raise every, every ranch. Of course. Why will they? You know what? Will they struggle to hunt a deer when they can just go in a barn and get some ship, you know, some back ship, that's it. So that's what happened, though, and, of course, with all this restriction and stuff, you don't have any, you don't have any right to kill one of them. You know the. You can only do what they call a self-defense shoot if really you've been attacked by a wolf, but it's, you know, it's so much restricted that nobody really enter in that case. So, no, it's shepherded against governments, because they want the government to do something, you know, and a lot of hunters are like, just let us hunt them, you know, like normally, and let us hunt them around the ranch and, you know, around farm, just that. But the government always want to. They want it's, it's politic. They want to have the ecologists on their side, you know so, to have the ecologists vote and to have the city votes, because that's what. That's what happened. Where the problem is, all these people from cities have never seen any wolf in their life, you know. They never been in this one thing they don't. They never see any ship in their life. Okay, they don't know what it is and all what what they hear is like oh you old bad hunter, you just want to kill, you know, some puppies, some wolf puppies, you bad, that's it. They want to. And so to get the vote of all. This dumbass was living in the city and will represent, like a big part of the population. The government, you know, will always take that ecologist, you know, point of view. And yeah, we're here now and that's that's a big problem.
Speaker 1:And when people see me here, you know we do a lot of here in texas. We got the coyotes and bobcat and stuff. So basically here in texas we got two million hogs, uh, eight hundred thousand coyotes and two hundred thousand bobcats and all of them are considering as a pest so you can kill off them without having, if you're in a private property, you don't even need a hunting license and you can hunt them day or night without any restriction. Okay, and that's good because you're, if you're a rancher and you see some coyote on, you know, on your pasture or bucket or something, you just shoot them. You know, and a lot, of, a lot of rancher they call me to shoot that you know this, this, uh, these predators, and get, keep them out of the of the range. So, and it works, you know it works. Some ranchers still have some, you know, damage, but it's pretty rare because we're doing such a good job to keep them away.
Speaker 1:Um, so why? Why? So, when the french people see me doing that, it just it just appears. So, you know, um, normal like it's. It's so what we should do everywhere, you know, just acting normally, predicting our territory.
Speaker 2:It's not about killing all of them everywhere, and you know, tracking them, and it's just about, you know, just standing over grand, like every other animals do yeah, you know, imagine if there was like a, like a computer virus, and it only attacked the bank accounts of people who lived in the city and it was like this is this is an old computer virus. We got rid of it many years ago but we decided to reintroduce it and now it just just, you know, it travels the internet, it goes to people who live in cities and it takes money out of their bank account. If that was the case, people would freak out about it. But if you just change that around, then that's how wolves and other predators um, pigs, stuff like that that's what happens to rural people. You know they they're literally taking money, they're taking lives away from these ranchers and farmers who who live in remote areas and they just want to be able to to protect their, their businesses and their livelihoods and their pets and themselves.
Speaker 1:No-transcript but yeah, and I will tell you more, like all the city people, you know, france is a small country compared of us. Okay, it's a little bit smaller than texas and so, for by example, texas so it's a little bit bigger than france, but we are 20 and 28 million in texas and we are 70 million in france. So say, you know, like on the street time, more on the smaller territory. Okay, so there is a way, bigger density of population everywhere and 30 percent of the french territory are forest. Okay, so basically, forests are the place where the rural people and the city people meet. You know, because a lot of city people, they want to go on vacation on the countryside, or, you know, they want to walk in the forest while they're walking dogs, while their kids, you know stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And I, and I tell them, you know, no, you're, you're like against, you know you're against hunting, against wolf hunting, against hog hunting or something.
Speaker 1:But when, when you're gonna wolf your dog in a forest and a fucking wolf gonna get it, you know you're gonna freak out so much because that's what's gonna happen when they, when you, you think they're gonna stay in the mountain, when they're gonna be super overpopulated, where are they going to go, you know. And when the hogs, you know, starts to come in your backyard, you know, and ram your fans, ram your dogs, ram your kids, what are you going to do? You're going to just freak out because you never see a hog in your fucking life, never, just only in the tv, and you're telling us how we should deal with them, but you don't have any idea of what it is to have to deal with them. So I just look forward that things run amok more, okay, and then discover, you know, they're going to have a taste of their own cook, you know, and see, okay, no, no, you're. You know, we know we can talk. What are we doing with that?
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, some lessons just have to get more painful before people can understand them. And that's that's exactly what I hear you saying is that it it's a bad situation, but it needs to get worse before folks can wrap their minds around it. And we see that all over the place. Where you know folks that don't live in wolf areas in the U? S, even if they're cattlemen or sheep herders or whatever, they're like oh man, that sucks, you're losing cattle, you're losing sheep, you're losing dogs, uh, but they don't really do anything.
Speaker 2:And then when it happens to them, man, it's it's pitch forks and torches and like they, they want to, you know, round up a posse and they're like we got to do something about this. It's like, man, we've been fighting this fight for 30 years up here. Where were you then? And it's just something that doesn't feel real to people. Until it happens to them and, unfortunately, until more people feel that pain, then the populist vote isn't going to change. Something I want to ask is do you ever take people from texas or from from the states back to france to hunt? I mean, it sounds like it's crazy restrictive, but is it even possible? It is possible.
Speaker 1:I never did it but it is possible. But him I don't see. I don't think they will have any stuff they will interest them it's. So for the animals we got in france, that's really good. That's a really good place. I mean, if that wasn't so restricted, france will be now some place to hunt Because, like, basically we have a lot of deers and a big one, we got some good red stag up practically everywhere, so you can have some very, you know, big ducks, like really big, and even like we got a lot of waterfowl too, like ducks or goose or stuff, like practically everywhere. We got some big hogs too. We can often shoot some more than 300 pound hogs in the french country. So really it's, that's a good place for hunting. The problem is, yeah, it's so over restricted that it's not really fun anymore. And for someone who will come from texas with a pretty open state, open-minded state on the hunt, you know that's that's.
Speaker 1:I think it's one of the best states in the us for hunting because that's, we got a lot of liberty, we can do a lot of things and we got a lot of different, you know, possibility even for the fishing. Basically, like in french I used to be to do the whale catfish uh fishing and that's super cool. So you don't have this kind of catfish here in the us and they're like gigantic catfish. So the biggest one I catch was 8 feet 13. It's about 250 pounds catfish. So that's really that's really really big and that I will love to bring some of my future guys from from texas you know catfishing in france. That will be cool but, like I said so it's it's so much restricted you can't fish them at night. You can you have you need to have a special tourization, so I don't even know it's where. When you are strangers, you know it will be a pain in the ass.
Speaker 2:So what's the difference between hospitality in rural France and hospitality in rural Texas?
Speaker 1:Okay, I will tell you it's different.
Speaker 1:Where are two countries living really differently? Now? France is an anxious country. It's really stressful to live over there, even on the countryside, even for a lot of people it is dangerous, it is. We got a lot of problem with the criminality, even on the countryside, and people are struggling with the money. So much, okay For you to understand. I can't compare with where you live because I don't know about Oregon, but here in Texas the average pay for a month is $4,600, okay, $4,600 a month, that's the average pay in Texas. So in France the cost of life is pretty much the same than in texas. It's just more expensive on some things. Okay, uh, the lodging is more expensive than in texas, way more expensive. The gas, of course, is way more expensive. Like a gallon of gasoline in france is about 10 bucks. Uh, yeah and um, the taxes are like so high that the average pay in france is 1800. Wow, so how can you live correctly when you get paid 1800 and everything costing, so you know, costing so much.
Speaker 1:My company, you know. So I got a company here in texas. Here in texas, okay, I paid 18 000 bucks of taxes for the last year. Okay, if I'd be in france with the same company, with the same number, like same money, okay. Same invoice, everything same, okay, I will have to pay 132 000 of taxes. Oh my god, can you?
Speaker 2:can you imagine that almost 10 times more so do you just wake up in texas every day and go out and stretch your arms and just celebrate that you're here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course I love this place and I can't tell how grateful I am for Texas and for USA. I mean, I'm so grateful to be in this country and this country gives me so much that I try to give it back. You know what I can and that's why you know I employ a lot of Texan people. I try to do my best to show the Texan culture to French people and celebrate the Texan culture, try to be really assimilated. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Assimilated. You know, on the Texan culture, I really, you know, I I show all the respect I got because, yeah, I'm free here, it's a free country, and france is not anymore. France is not a free country. We got a overpowered government and it's it's. It is complicated, the people struggle a lot in france. We don't have any right anymore and and then france used to be a free country.
Speaker 1:So I know what it is, you know to to to come from. You know, basically france was usa before the usa. We used to be the first power in the world, we used to be the biggest army, we used to be the land of the human right and stuff. So that was, you know, and everything is it's in the past and everything changed. I know it's a tyrant, it's a socialist tyranny. People are struggling, uh, poor, struggling. The criminality is so high, nobody got right anymore. So being able to, you know, rebuild my life here with all these people super nice, with me, helping me, all my friends here, they helped me so much for installing myself. You know, when I moved in, because that was a big jump, you know, you don't go 6 000 miles away like that. It's, it's a big thing and I will. I will not be able to do it without them.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I'm so thankful for everything it is and I I want to clarify something and I'm I'm going to make an assumption here, so stop me if if I'm wrong. I lived. I lived in Norway for a year when I was in high school, and I love Norway so much. I haven't been back. I would love to go back. I love the people there and at the same time, I also very much love my home and the United States. And I'm sure that you still have so much love for France and French people. You just want things to be better, and I think that that you still have so much love for France and French people. You just want things to be better, and I think that that's really normal, right?
Speaker 1:um, so the problem, I will say it's for me, france doesn't exist anymore. Oh no, the, the country France, what it used to be, doesn't exist anymore. The.
Speaker 1:French culture doesn't exist anymore, it's. It's just we're like a tiny amount of people making it, you know, keeping it alive, but it's, we're not enough. And someone people tell, ask me a lot of time, do you miss france? And my answer is the same I was missing it even when I was living there. It just doesn't. France doesn't exist, that's. I'm sorry to tell that and I know I think. I think some french people still have some hope, but we're going into a civil war. Everybody knows that in france that's gonna happen. That's probably what gonna bring me back in France, if it happened when I'm alive. Everybody knows that we're going into a civil war and that's maybe our best hope. Basically and that's sad to say that, because civil war is normally something you don't wish, you know, nobody wished that, but we are so, um, this, this desperate that we're wishing that will be maybe the only thing we can, you know, make a new start. It's so bad there.
Speaker 1:Like I will say okay for you, okay to get an example. Yeah, here in the USA you got the traditional people. Okay, we fight for freedom, freedom, you know, for the good values and something. And you got the other side to you know, and that's what. That's what happened in america. We will consistently sorry, consistently, consistently, consistently yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:I have to fight against your own people, basically, okay, uh and I'm not, paul, talking about fighting, really fighting them, even if it happens sometime but I mean you have to fight for your right and defending your freedom, defending your tradition, your values, against, basically, your own people who want to. You know, um, you want to destroy that. Fight for the constitution and everything. So I will say, if you take god's country and family, of the three principal values in life okay and you ask how many american people think that three things have to be, you know, the most important values in their life, I will say that almost 50 percent of this country is like countries feel like that, even if the 50 personals act really bad against that. I know that they're really far from that, but I will say you still have 50% of people fighting with that. If you ask the same question in France, you will be less than 1%.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That's where the problem is. It's disproportionate. It's because the way this country works it's not a federal country and it's not a constitutional country like that. So the government does it for everybody. So it's been 60 or 80 years that the government brainwashed the kid in every school because everybody's in public school. In France you don't have separation like here. Yeah, if you live in Montana in Texas, or if you live in Vermont or California, you will not live the same way of life because these states, you know, grow up in a different way. Okay, so if you're conservative and you're looking for tradition and rurality, you will choose, the states will look like you and you will grow up. Basically, we don't have the chance in France. You could be in a region, really rural, really a conservative, as you want. You will have the same laws, same schools, same everything that everybody else you know. So think that, like the old country was the old US, was California, basically Right, imagine that California people choose lows and everything for the rest of the country and that's what happened in France, yep.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope that it doesn't come to civil war in France. You know that's bad business for everyone involved and with a country that has already been disarmed, where they're not allowed to have firearms and be able to protect and defend themselves without that Second Amendment right that we have here, it's going to be a tough lift but, like we've talked about, France has seen hardships like the US can't really imagine. You know, you are a really tough people because you've been through hard things and gosh, I don't know. I just hope it doesn't come to that. I hope that there's a better solution than actual civil war.
Speaker 1:I don't see any better. I know it's because there is a parameters we didn't talk already. It's also the immigration parameters. In France we are 68 million, but we got 20 million Muslims living there. Now it's a million of people coming every year and these people they come to conquer. So they're already preparing for civil war on that side and they're already acting against civil war on that side and they're already acting against the french people a lot, you know, wow. So basically french people are, like you know, uh, stuck with the government on one side, you know, and the concurrent on the other side, and that's, it's a, it's a double front for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I I hope for a good resolution, and talking about it is a big step right, making sure that people understand what their problems are and where everybody's coming from. That's pretty important, as long as everybody who's involved listens, right. You got to hear people out, and oftentimes the rural folks folks they don't get listened to there.
Speaker 1:We come in another. Another of the reasons will bring me here in texas is I've been prosecuted by the government so far to saying what I'm saying, telling to you right now, because you say you talk about the second amendment, but we also don't have the First Amendment and we don't have free speech in France anymore. So think about country as a company. Ok, a tyranny will be a company where if you don't do what the boss asks, you're fired. Ok, that is a tyranny. If you don't do what the boss asks, you're fired. Okay, that is a tyranny. Okay, france is what we call a soft tyranny. It's things like that. As a company, you don't do what the boss asks, so they're going to harass you until you leave.
Speaker 1:That's what happened in France. Because they can't be openly a tyranny, you know for the rest of the world. So they can't just, you know, bring you in jail, like for no reason, like that. So what they do is they're using every power they got against you. They will remove all your license, they will not allow you to work anymore. They will close every bank, hack and sugar.
Speaker 1:That's what happened to me. They close all my banks, second accounts, they take the money off my company and everything illegally, like for no reason or something. Okay, no, I can't open any bank account in France. Even if I was, I never. I don't have like a bad credit score or anything. You know, I never had any money problem. I never had a bad payment problem or nothing. It's just like that. It's just because the government, you know, tell the bank no, this guy's not gonna have a bank account anymore, so you don't. So not any mortgage, not any bank account. You can't even run a company.
Speaker 1:Uh, like I told you, I was a bouncer, I had a license as a security guard. They remove it. You know no explanation. Uh, though, your hunting license, your right to own a gun at home, they remove it. They will remove everything. Even if you've never been I've never been in a court, never been judging or something, never did something illegal. Because I'm a face of the opposition they're going to prosecute you, they're going to arrest you until you stop. That's not happening in France. No, so when you say it's important to tell that things and people have to listen better. The problem is, it's super hard in france to tell that such a thing, because they will do everything they can, you know, to stop you I think your grandfather would be so proud of you hopefully, yeah, what can?
Speaker 2:what can people do to to support you? Um what? What channel should they be following, uh?
Speaker 1:how so?
Speaker 2:how can they follow along in your, in your wildlife?
Speaker 1:this will, I mean for an american audience. They should just, they should just uh, follow me on instagram. That's probably the best thing it's called. There's a that's a lot of pictures story and everything I'm posting really often because the rest of what I'm doing is in french. So, uh, like, I got a patreon where I do like, because I'm doing live streaming two times a week on twitch and I'm posting the replay on patreon and I post some hunting and fishing video too on patreon, or even some other things like trucks video or stuff like outdoor style video, but it's in french, so that's not really interesting for american people.
Speaker 2:But I can't they still can't follow me on instagram, because on Instagram they can see my hunting and man, everything stuff, food, cigars and everything okay, and there's going to be a link in the podcast description to Batiste Instagram and uh, yeah, I, I, uh, I think you've got a page, you've got a bunch of cool stuff going on all the time and thank you, and you are, you're absolutely upsetting what Americans think of when they think of of a, of a Frenchman, and I think that you're doing it in the very best of ways.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you really much, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for your time and being on the show and I look forward to running into you in Texas one of these days or getting you up here to Oregon.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it would be fun to hunt together, and I'll brush up on some of my French swear words a little bit beforehand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good, all right, buddy.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thank you have a good one, buddy. Thank you so much. Thank you have a good one. I just want to take a second and thank everyone who's written a review, who has sent mail, who sent emails, who sent messages. Your support is incredible, and I also love running into you at trade shows and events and just out on the hillside when we're hunting. I think that that's fantastic. I hope you guys keep adventuring as hard and as often as you can. Art for the Six Ranch Podcast was created by John Chatelain and was digitized by Celia Harlander. Original music was written and performed by Justin Hay, and the Six Ranch Podcast is now produced by Six Ranch Media. Thank you all so much for your continued support of the show and I look forward to next week when we can bring you a brand new episode.