Pam finally went to a bull fight!
A short lesson first:
There are two types of bull fights in this area of France - the Spanish style with a single matador who fights the bull to the death (representative of the Spanish heritage of this area); and the Camarguerise style where several rasteurs fight the bull by hand to obtain the very small rosettes and string that are tied to the bull's horns. They earn points and money depending on how well they do and the bulls live to fight another day! Some of the photos show the bull up close with the string tied around his horns, so as you will see, it is not as easy as you think!
I went to a Camargue style bull fight in the ancient Roman arena at Nimes!
The day starts with a big band entertaining (or practising) in the streets. I caught them playing at a local cafe. On big fight days, there are parades down the street and a lot more fan fare, but we missed that opening weekend - see the earlier blog about our rondolee - and I just caught an ordinary Sunday fight, hence the crowd while enough to create atmosphere was not huge.
Once in the arena, the event starts once again with the big band. There are several photos of this band, because the band leader was a real character and would leave the band to go dancing and skipping around the arena drumming up the crowd while the band played on. For those of you who have seen the Itchy Feet Pep Band, it was a bit reminiscent of them.
Once the band is ensconced in the middle of the arena, the big parade starts, first with two young kids (aged no more than 5) sitting side saddle and riding two full size Camargue horses (the special white ones, bred only in this region), followed by a parade of ladies dressed in traditional costume and then by the Guardians (the official local name for the ranchers) on their horses, who present the prize winning rosettes to the judges one by one. Finally come the rasteurs on foot, dressed all in white. After a few more tunes, the Rasteurs leap the inside fence of the arena, ready to start and the parade casts off and files out.
Then the first bull enters, the rasteurs leap back into the arena and the fight is on.
There are six fights in the afternoon, each lasting about 15 minutes. the timekeeping is done by the trumpeters from the band and they announce the start and the finish of each fight with a small fanfare! Great fun. (a photo below)
Each bull is progressively older, bigger and more angry and wily. This was very evident without being told. With the first 3 or 4 bulls, the rasteurs managed to get all the string that was tied around the bulls horns. By the last 2 bulls, this did not happen. In fact the last bull spent most of his time destroying the inner fence with his horns!
The rasteurs are pretty amazing. A few of them grab the string with their bare hands, but most used a sort of comb arrangement attached to one hand, (I haven't looked up the details yet on the internet but will do so). This does cut the bull, because you can see blood, but it is certainly not life threatening, more just enough to annoy and anger them.
Overall it was good to see and certainly a cultural education, a bit like going to an Aussie Rules match for the first time, but I still feel it is taunting the bull and a bit cruel. It is however a test of the rasteurs agility and bravery, and the bulls do know the ropes. They were quite funny really, because once the trumpets played the end of the fight, the rasteurs leapt out of sight, the bulls looked around and then each of them calmly just trotted straight out the arena and through the gates at the end. They knew exactly what the noise meant and where to go!
I have included a few photos of the arena and Nimes at the end as I didn't take many photos last time I went to Nimes or this time. Apart from the specific ruins or gardens, I don't find Nimes a particularly engaging city. One photo was interesting though and that is the plaque for Bernard Lazare, the first defender of Alfred Dreyfus, who it appears was born in Nimes. I came across it by accident. For those who don't know about Dreyfus, it was a famous anti Semitic / discrimination case that took place in the early 20th century. there will be lots of articles and books about it on the internet or in your local library!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy your first bull fight by proxy! Pam
No comments:
Post a Comment