Not necessarily Mandy, it depends what type of baler the farmer or contractor owns, the rectangular ones are easier to transport so are becoming more widely used.
The bales that Joan is after are what people call wheatabix bales, you use to see them years ago at country fairs and they fit into peoples car boots and are easy to handle.
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As I havenāt got a clue about this Iām going to ābaleā out of the conversation. Did you see what I did then?! Bale out!! 
Best of luck finding your bales Joan.
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Except that I am about 700km away! France is a big country.
We have quite a lot of horses locally, and their fields are for grazing or haymaking - either big round bales or big rectangular bales. Since no cereals are grown round here I donāt know where they get it from, but they also have small rectangular bales of straw for the stable bedding. I guess as much easier to handle, especially much of the labour is done by youngsters.
Hi Stella as prev posts , you will see from last year we were trying to source lots - Everything is now sorted APART from straw which was all sorted but the chap died. Soooooo thats why we are looking again. The seating area is not an absolute must - obviously - the wedding planner people will supply tables chairs etc but the straw bales are something extra our daughter and her partner would like. If no bales no extra seating . The thing is we do not expect them for nothing - they will be paid for plus delivery and will give them back after or donate to someone who wants them.
Exactly Mick.
Very well done Mandy x
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Jane, French not good enough for an in depth conversation. Also we are in the UK not returning to France til a week before the wedding.
Oh dear Joanā¦ friends in the area of the Wedding cannot locate any, the chap who could, has died and presumably left no-one who can help. To cap it all Jane has got them in her area but 700km awayā¦
If extra seating is a must, as I have said, chairs are available to rentā¦ and that might be the only solutionā¦something for your daughter and her partner to ponder onā¦ you canāt take it all on your shouldersā¦ 
Why not ask the wedding planners to find bales?
Bales of either shape can be hay or straw or even something else like haylidge. The main difference between hay and straw is that hay is an animal foodstuff, dried grass, whereas straw is a waste product left over when the foodstuff, often grain, is removed. If you had a horse you might well need both hay and straw; hay for feed and straw for bedding.
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We have about 40 just cleaned out an old hay loft in 16700 but unfortunately cannot deliver and they are free
Davidā¦ be careful with old hay/strawā¦ it can contain microbes (I forget exactly) which are dangerous to breathe inā¦ for humans and for animalsā¦ hence few horsey folk will take a risk by accepting even freebiesā¦ 
Then I would suggest no as they have definitely been there for a while and I even had to mask up because of the dust
If you can store them until it is safe to burn themā¦ I know some folk abhor burning, but when it it legal to do soā¦ that is what folk do around hereā¦
NIce farmer next door is going to dispose of them for me
Around here the wheat was harvested a week ago, and now the barley.
Now farmers will have straw, a few weeks ago they had crops in the field. It will be worth trying again.
Both Veroique and I have shown that suppliers do list on leboncoin.
I understand that you are in the UK, but the telephones in the UK can call the telephones in Franceā¦so I keep telling my motherš
These are the first page of leboncoin Aquitaine, I just looked at it, some are from 24 but saint jean dāeyraud is within a 40 minute drive of Margueron.
Google leboncoin,
choose aquitaine,
click on the magnifying glass,
type in bottes de paille and
select matƩriel agricole from the drop-down menu.
Phone the people you like the look of, or get the wedding planners to do it.
Thanks for the thought Dave.
Hi Martin. Yes we have telephones here but our French is not good enough to have a telephone conversation. Get by face to face.