I've suddenly realized that this semester is done in two months and it's travel crunch time. I don't know if I'll be back here next semester, so just in case I'm not, I have to see everything now! I was trying to figure out where to go last weekend when a friend emailed me a link to a flyer for a Spanish Festival in a beach town near here. It looked like several food stands and a few shops, but there was also a schedule, and on that schedule was Course Camarguaise. I had no idea what that meant, but I soon discovered that it's the version of bullfighting practiced in this region. It's nice and friendly--the bulls have a good life spent mostly at pasture on the marshes, but every once in a while they're herded into town by about 6 cowboys that form a triangle to herd 1-3 bulls at a time (sorry for the blurry picture--they don't move slowly).
The event we went to was actually a training event for new rasteurs (the guys who do the "fighting"), so I'm not sure if this is always how it goes, but that day there were about 10 guys in the ring competing. I do know that the goal is to remove ribbons attached to the bull's head and horns. No red cape, just getting the bull's attention and getting him to run at you so you can get a good grab at the horns before you vault yourself out of the ring to safety.
They brought out five bulls in succession, and each was bigger and more aggressive than the last. It was really interesting to watch! But the bulls are definitely not hurt. I was reading more about the Course Camarguaise and apparently you'll get bulls that are quite famous, and their names will be printed bigger than those of the rasteurs on posters advertising the events! I'm really not sure how I'd handle watching a real bullfight where they kill the bull, and I'll happily take this as my proxy.
Of course after the fight we were hungry and had a nice paella and sangria lunch. It was a Spanish festival after all!
No comments:
Post a Comment