Hunters. Not the stirrup-cup tally-ho latter-day Light Brigade but the kind who beat the woods to drive game down onto a firing line. In France they act as if they own the forests, and do their damnedest to wreck any other organized activities queering their pitch. I was at a meeting of five local clubs' committees last week, and two of them were mightily pissed off that their MTB events, for which they had full permission from the Préfecture and the Office National des Forêts, had been sabotaged, one organizer discovering on the morning of the ride that over 30 route-markers had been removed overnight. If you complain to the mairies responsible for the areas in question, all you get is "oui, mais c'est la Chasse" (N.B. capital C) and a resigned sigh - and probably a snigger from anyone else in earshot, since most of the farmers are members.
Bloody mafia.