just edited to update that my buddy got his pipes back!
Anybody got pics of what french pipes look like to jog my memory
Got me curious, too. There are over 150 different types of bagpipe in Southern France alone. Could you narrow this down a bit?
djm
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djm…I’d LOVE to see you name 150 different French bagpipes!!
…I’m not sure..I believe his set was the cornemuse berrychone or bechonnet..pitched in G.
Like this one here???
This was from an interview I saw with Robert Amyot, one of the maitres-sonneurs with the group Quintette de Cornemuses. I guess it could be tricky, too, because they have different versions of the same set of pipes but with different lengths of drones (some of the drones looked like they were over a metre long!). Tons of info on the web about French bagpipes. If you’re headed for Europe this summer, the festival at Saint-Chartier looks like it has bagpipes from around the world and coming out the yin-yang. Enjoy!
djm
Davey, not to be a thorn in your side but I’d have to concurr with DJM, Quintette de cornemuses, and the Swarm of Drones occur every once in a while in Vancouver,BC where some of the french bagpipes we’re on display. I personally don’t remember each name for each se, but when I interviewed a fellow from France last Piper’s Gathering '04 Jean-Louis Rasle :http://www.pipersgathering.org/Gallery%202004/Steve%20Douglas/Rasle1SD2004.jpg he showed me a thing or two on these interesting pipes.
upiper71
The drones don’t even look like they are over a meter long .. they are! 
I once had a Grande Cornemuse de Bourbonnaise in D (same pitch as an “normal” UP) and the bass-drone (which you have over your shoulder) was more than a meter long. I assume that Andreas Rogge’s French style cornemuse in low G (see below) must have a drone with 1.5 meters ?!?
But image the bass-drone of your UP in a straight way … that would be also quite long - wouldn’t it?
That is a French Cornemuse de Bechonnet named after a French pipemaker form the 19th (?) century. He added to the “old fashioned” style with 2 drones a very small 3rd drone, which you can see on that picture just on the backside of the tenor- and chanter-stock. So with this you have three drones in G, g and g’. This style is also bellow blown.
No need to imagine, Thies my friend. Just have a look at what’s on sale in eBay:
Didn’t she play on Eion O’Riabhaigh CD?
Im wondering why they would want to put a big heavy drone next to the chanter ? Isn’t that cumbersome 
It’s not a big drone … just as long as the chanter (more or less):
Some of these French bagpipes have tone holes on both (like two chanters). There’s all sorts of arrangements of drones, some coming out beside the chanter, some with only one or two big drones thrown over the shoulder, some mouth-blown, some bellows-blown, many different keys, etc. I have no idea what the names of them all are.
djm
Yeah … djm is right. If some one is looking for further info the following three links might provide insight to the various French bagpipes:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/RNiepold/Instover.htm
http://www.pipeshow.net/musee-virtuel.htm (in French; and not only French bagpipes)
http://www.cabrette.com/ (only in French)
Yes, for sure they have two sets of holes on each chanter(x2), in fact I have a few pics from last year somewhere on the pc where he has another set of pipes with a long chanter and a 1/4 sized chanter.
Actually, it looked like what Thiel said at: “Pipeshow” like a “Cabrette Auvergnates”
Something like this pic: http://www.pipeshow.net/images/Vignettes%20et%20images%20grande%20taille/Images%20grande%20tailles/Centre-instruments%20B/Images%20Brayauds%20B/Cabrettes%20B/Cabrette-Roque-(5).jpg
upiper71
But there are not two chanters! It’s only one and a drone next to it …
How correct…silly me.. 