The cast and crew arrived in Sologne between February 6 and 15. Renoir's son Alain worked as an assistant camera operator and Dido Freire worked as the script girl. Renoir's assistants on the film were Koch, Zwobada and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Tony Corteggianni was hired as a technical advisor for the rabbit hunting sequence. The cast and crew stayed at Hotel Rat in Lamotte-Beuvron. Heavy rainfall prevented the start of shooting in Sologne for several weeks and Renoir rewrote parts of the script to accommodate the rain. While he finished the script the entire company played cards and bonded; they described it as a happy time in their lives just before the horrors of World War II began. Paulette Dubost said shooting the film was great fun.