Abrivado, La Course Camarguaise, Bandido
Saturday, Oct 5th
We were now ready for the bullfighting. This festival is one of many of its kind all over southern France and it is one of the bigger ones. This may be because it is in the heart of the Camargue which is where the manades (ranches) are all located. Each day of the festival is sponsored by a different family's manade.
So the day starts in a meadow at the edge of town. The bulls have been brought in by the sponsoring manade. But before doing anything with them we have to have a party! Everyone was eating, drinking wine, cooking, we would call it a tailgate party. There was a very lively band playing traditional tunes.
Typical group of young French wranglers.
Presently, the gardians began to cut from the herd the bulls that would be taken through the town to the arena. These photos are documentary just to show how this show proceeds.
Nine bulls are gathered in the small canal behind the meadow.
The bulls are driven up the canal where they will be herded down a lane and into the town..
Here they come again.
This begins the part of the festival called the abrivado, where the gardians run the bulls through the town. At this point we rushed out to try to catch them emerging from the south gate of the town. We just missed them. The last of them were running into the arena as we arrived. But this is the reason we will be here for three days. They will run two more abrivados before we leave and we will be there.
But we were not late for the course camarguaise. This, we have learned at this point, is the name of the French style bullfight, where the bull is the star of the show and is not killed. Rather, the object of the encounter is for the rasetuer to grab a ribbon from between the bull's horns. It is still a very exotic spectacle. As we reported in the blog last year, at times, most of the time actually, we could hardly believe what we were seeing.
We've also learned that of all the course camarguaise bullfights across southern France, this is one of the more informal, or could we say chaotic? In most towns the rasetuers are vetted for skill level before they are allowed in the arena. In Aigues-Mortes it is a free for all. Anyone who wants to get killed by a wild bull will be given every opportunity.
So we crowded into the little arena where there is very limited seating for the public. Most of the seats are private boxes for the various manades and their friends.
The informality is evident in the pregame warmup.
Then we see the first bull. There were several wannabe matadors this year.
The guy in the sequence below almost outruns the bull. But not quite. Note that the bull breaks off the top rail of the fence.
The young man below was trying very hard to be a proper rasetuer. He's trying to grab the ribbon between the bulls horns and showing pretty good form. But he is clearly not ready for the major leagues.
He was persistent though, we must give him that.
Maybe this is what one has to do to get to the big time.
The haystacks in the center of the arena are supposed to provide, in theory, a home base of safety. But then it's only a theory.
Here's another matador.
Now comes as encounter with a bull that did not leave us laughing. There was a group of young men who had all bought big cheap sombreros at a souvenir shop. They were trying to toss them on the bull's horn as it ran past. But the young man below got out onto the outer track and made no attempt to evade the bull when it charged. We suspect there was alcohol involved.
We could get no news about his condition but those paramedics look a little somber.
On that note we will leave the bullfighting. More festival in the next post.
