Now to the main event. As soon as the gardians rode into town we hustled down to the arena to get in on the "bullfight". The Camargue tradition of bullfighting involves challenging, not killing, the bull. A ribbon is placed between the bull's horns and the razuteurs, these are the French version of the matador, try to grab it. It makes for an interesting spectacle and I think you might agree, after seeing these pictures, that the bull has the advantage. The bullfights in the bigger towns are more formal. That is, the razuters are dressed in white and they have to be vetted before they are allowed to participate. In Aigues-Mortes it is more like a convention of rodeo clowns. Below are two of their finest. The haystacks in the background are supposed to serve as a safe spot where the bull can't get them. We shall see that this is an illusion. The rail fence the boys are sitting on is also an illusory barrier for the bull. 

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The arena itself is a temporary assemblage of large metal grandstands and private homemade boxes, some of which have been in families for generations. That's what you see pictured below. _5001248 _5001246

The little kids are running around because we are between bullfight sets. There are three sets of three bullfights each. These children are practicing for the day when they, too, can run for their lives with a 1500 pound raging bull snorting down their necks. 

Below is a typical encounter. The razuteur has to get as close as he can but still make it back to the haystack.

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Did I mention that in this contest the bull's horns are sheathed? So he can't gore you. That leaves only nine other ways to get killed doing this.

Throughout this whole spectacle Jeanne Marie and I were constantly looking at each other asking, "Can you believe this? Are we seeing what we're seeing?" And it wasn't really the antics of the young men that had us slack jawed. In all cultures the young males need some way to burn off their excess testosterone. What amazed us was the casual way young and old, men and women, would hang around on that rail fence, casually talking, sipping a drink, sometimes not even watching the action, as if they were not involved. But they were. Many times the bull jumped over that fence and went after anyone who happened to be standing there. The young man below had not been taunting the bull at all but he got the full treatment. The bull hooked his horn on the kid's shirt and threw him over the fence. But then the lad got up, dusted himself off, and walked away triumphant. He had faced the bull.

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Needless to say I took lots of pictures. My camera can do ten frames per second so it makes a little movie. Below are several slide shows each with a good stretch of action. The most aggressive bulls are saved for last and you can see this as the slide shows progress. The best ones are at the last three.

In our next post we will be herding the bulls back out of town.