Saturday Sept 28

We started before sunrise at the Tour Carbonniere, a 13th Century guard tower that sits right in the marshes. It was built to protect the approaches to the town of Aigues-Mortes, which we will be visiting later in the trip. We were there for the first of six photo sessions with Cecile. This one would be a bull roundup, a real event that is done every fall to move the bulls to their winter grazing areas. The photographers rode along on a wagon that gave us good long range views and kept us out of reach of the bulls. We were at times shooting into the sun but for the most part the light was gorgeous. 

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The white horses are a very ancient breed, going into prehistory, and may be one of the first populations of horses to be domesticated. This means they have been selected through the centuries for intelligence and agility. You may see them described as "wild" but that is a stretch. They do live year round in the marches, many of them unshod and never ridden. But they all belong to somebody.

_8506695 _8506712 The gardiens are never without their long stick which they use to guide, persuade, encourage, the bull. But most of the work of herding is done by the man/horse combination. The horses are extremely agile and instinctive so it's hard to know whether the rider is directing the horse or it just knows how to out guess the bull.

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For the picture above I'm not as close as it looks. Thank God for telephoto lenses! After the roundup we were treated to a little demonstration of cutting a single bull from the herd. This is where horses' agility really shows. 

_8508175 _8508221 _8508229 _8508232 _8508235 It was a profitable morning. Watching these Camargue cowboys do the work they've done for a few thousand years is what travel is all about. The pictures came out okay too.