Where the two-humped camel roam

June 6, 2012 4:18 PM

"OK. HOLY COW! OK, that's fine, two big camels just passed me by... (giggling) Yes... There are camels on the highway. There's a circus somewhere and there are camels on the highway. Yes, Yes. No, no, no, there are two camels and I'm filming them." French drivers meet a couple of stray camels on a Normandy highway and try to capture them.
posted by elgilito (17 comments total)

I feel like my grandpa filmed this . . . so much sky! So much spinning!

(The camels are cute though.)
posted by WaspEnterprises at 4:30 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

so much sky! So much spinning!

I know, I felt kind of seasick at parts of the video. But how neat! I loved the way the guy was giggling as he was explaining about the camels. That one camel was very docile when the guy was standing there holding it by the harness; I always think they're really spitty and grumpy.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:43 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

The odd distortion is coming from google's video stabilization algorithm, by the way; the original video was probably extremely shaky.
posted by Pyry at 4:46 PM on June 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

camels in Normandy, what a slim chance!
not down in the desert, but way up in France!
perhaps they were craving some fine French cuisine!
or les chameaux belles françaises,
if you know what I mean!

ooh lala!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:46 PM on June 6, 2012 [4 favorites]

Avez vous un wump? C'est les humps de Msr. Gump.

Dromedaries!
posted by Chuffy at 4:49 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would just like to take this moment to suggest we're witnessing the miracle of migration.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:06 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would just like to take this moment to suggest we're witnessing the miracle of migration.

They escaped from a circus.
posted by mykescipark at 5:24 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

So at one part he mentions what highway he's on, which he says is by Caen. Last year I worked in the region as an English TA and I was tickled pink when about 20 students were late to school because there were horses loose on the road.

Now I see that I've missed out on the far superior camels.

(Though I loved that his first response was "Oh la vache" which people say all the time there and brought me right back to rainy Normandy)
posted by raccoon409 at 5:34 PM on June 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

And now I have a previously-unimaginable longing to hear "My Humps" sung in French. Merci.
posted by argonauta at 5:42 PM on June 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Dromedaries!

Nay, Bactrian!
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:48 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

He's lucky he didn't get them into his car.
posted by Turkey Glue at 6:37 PM on June 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

They say circus, but that's just because they want to keep the amazing story of Sahara to Sub-arctic camel migration from going public.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:42 PM on June 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

They say circus, but that's just because they want to keep the amazing story of Sahara to Sub-arctic camel migration from going public.

Planet Earth had a fantastic segment on this. (Sorry, not finding a link...)
posted by LordSludge at 7:51 PM on June 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

In 2008, my wife and I stayed at The Ivy House, a gite (Bed and Breakfast) just a four-minute walk inland from Utah Beach. Our first evening there, we went for a stroll and before we found the lane that turned towards the beach, walked past a small farmyard and found ourselves looking at two wallabies. About 100 yards farther along towards the beach at a small campground, all of a sudden a llama went bounding across the lane in front of us with three men in hot pursuit. So I'm hardly surprised to hear that two camels turn up in the same part of the country. (Oh, and on a related note, to remember which is which in number of humps, just turn the first letter in each name on its back. The dromedary's "D" has one hump; the bactrian's "B" two.)
posted by Mike D at 8:05 PM on June 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

Camels when well cared for and correctly socialized are very calm and friendly. Camels have no natural enemies. Even people don't count, because people usually prefer to keep camels as opposed to eating them. Only Bactrians have a wild population, which is endangered. they are very useful, intelligent animals and don't deserve the bum rap they get
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 1:26 AM on June 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

So these desert creatures escape from a circus, and see all that thick grass. "OMG! Heaven!".
Except it smells like car exhaust.
But the grass is thick with moisture! Heaven!
Honking cars, stinking.

They must be intelligent. Clearly at least one could tell the paradise was fake.
posted by Goofyy at 1:55 AM on June 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think they must be headed the same place this ostrich is.
posted by jocelmeow at 11:47 AM on June 7, 2012 [1 favorite]