Bears, sheep and humans are a volatile mix in these mountains. The combination has set up a classic French clash between the know-it-all state in Paris, guided by the stiff hand of the European Union, and one of France’s myriad microcultures.

The conflict is elemental: The French government is trying to restore the centuries-old brown bear population, which dwindled nearly to extinction by the 1990s, the victim of encroaching humanity and hunting.

The shepherds are not interested in the bear as “an element of the natural heritage in the Pyrenees,” as a government brochure puts it. They see their sheep being eaten, in sizable numbers.

If the bears are a hidden part of the landscape, their sheep prey are the opposite.

Every June, shepherds spend two days parading their flocks through area villages. In St.-Girons, citizens came to their windows, smiling, to watch 800 sheep stream through this gray provincial town. The main street became a sea of woolly white sheep, baahing and nuzzling their handlers to the delight of children watching open-mouthed from the sidewalk.