Why The French Are Saying Roo La La

The Sunday Age

Sunday February 12, 2006

ANNABEL CRABB, RAMBOUILLET

SOMETHING is puzzling the great insurance companies of France. Every few months, a provincial motorist submits a claim for damage to a vehicle with a wild story about hitting a kangaroo, deep in the ancient forest of Rambouillet.

The funny thing is, it is not made up, although the marsupials are in fact wallabies, not kangaroos.

"It was in December, just before Christmas," recalls Brigitte Perrin, 56, who lives in the tiny township of Emance.

"My husband and I were driving home and it was very cold and dark. Suddenly a kangaroo jumped in front of the car. It was like a deer, but a deer bounds away.

"This creature just sat there. Even though I was driving slowly, I couldn't avoid it."

But when Mrs Perrin contacted her insurance company, it raised a corporate eyebrow at her tale of the moonlight macropod.

And fair enough. Who would expect to find a wallaby just an hour from Paris?

Emance's mayor, Francoise Grangeon, is now a regular correspondent with insurance companies. She has written letters vouching for the presence of "kangaroos" in the forest.

They have bred in the wild there for about 30 years, having escaped long ago from the local Parc de Sauvage wildlife park.

"People do hit them from time to time, unfortunately," Ms Grangeon says. "I am often writing letters to insurance companies to assure them that kangaroos do exist in the forest. They find it difficult to believe."

Rambouillet, with its elaborate chateau that was once home to Louis XVI, boasts hundreds of square kilometres of dense forest populated by deer, stags and boar, as well as the Australian stowaways.

It's famous as a kingly hunting ground, but Mrs Grangeon says the only danger to a wallaby or kangaroo is an oncoming French vehicle.

"The local hunting association looks after the kangaroos. They don't shoot them," she says.

She knits her brows at the very suggestion that the bouncing Australian invaders might be good to eat.

"Eat? Eat? Why would I eat?" she demands.

In the meantime, Emance has reached a truce of sorts with the insurance industry. Emance grants residency to the roos, and the insurers pay up.

Now to introduce the saltwater crocodile.

© 2006 The Sunday Age

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