The French government have introduced another law.  This one states that if you are walking in rural areas you have to keep your dog on the lead between such and such dates to protect the burgeoning fauna and flora, with a penalty of 750 euros if caught.

So I'd kept sadly to the river path these last few days, given that i'm having to count the pennies to get through to the end of the month. 

But the siren song of the hills was breaking my heart and aching my head so I did what any reasonable person would have done days ago and googled the Law which stipulated that dogs could be untethered on GR routes and all public footpaths. 
That seemed reasonable enough although Bernie is unaware of GR routes and public footpaths. 

I stuck to them.  He more or less did.  We crossed Christmas Wood which had become beautiful in my absence.  The clever app on my phone was able to ignore the sound of my heavy tread and sniffing and identified the songs of a wagtail, a Borelli's warbler, a greater spotted woodpecker, a golden oriole, a chiffchaff, a chaffinch, a blackcap, a collared dove and a blue and great tit. I felt chuffed and sent the results to the Cornell ornithological lab.  Bernie got scent of something and ran ayelping off the path and into the woods.  I cringed for the fauna and the flora.