Bullfighting in France!

[chrismahon]

Came as quite a surprise to me to discover bullfighting in this part of France -I thought it was only Spain. Anyway it is this weekend so we've been to peek at the goings on with the 30,000 that descend on us once a year (town population 6000). This is the first year they have provided camp sites apparently. In previous years they just slept in the streets! Last night was a bit riotous, judging by the litter and broken glass which was being swept up. The bars were open at 9.00am this morning and full, so it doesn't take much imagination to know what it will be like by lunchtime and then into the evening. Many thousands were just waking up and heading in that direction. Most people are wearing red and white, which I presume is bullfighting colours.

The actual arena is very small indeed. Perhaps seating for 2000 ? We went there for a car boot sale earlier in the year. So all the other people are there for the wild party, which starts with bulls through the streets I think, about lunchtime. 95% of the people there are youngsters from Toulouse, so the Police presence is substantial. Saw a Gendarme with the biggest Police Dog I think I've ever seen -had the word 'intervention' on his collar!

Many of the shops are boarded up with service through a small hatchway. It is a much needed big money maker for the town though, so I can't see it being stopped. However I was told yesterday that bullfighting in Spain is about to be banned, so I have no idea what will happen here. The Matadors come from all over -Spain, France, Bolivia and there are even two Englishmen on the circuit apparently.

Needless to say, we won't be attending this year. We are off to the local Vineyard tomorrow for a wine tasting luncheon instead -more our style I think.

 

[MrsBiscuit]

:shock:

I know they have bullfights in Portugal too, although I'm told they don't kill the bulls, just annoy them, but I'm not at all sure that's true. I do know some towns have a sort of bull-running event where they barricade off the square or whatever and let young bulls run around whilst brave/stupid locals clamber over the barricades and get charged. People shin up lampposts and into fountains to escape and like you say, copious amounts of alcohol flow even at 11am :shock:

 

[chrismahon]

Apparently the move in Spain is going to replace the spearing with heavy blood loss and the killing with a sword with a version that just sees coloured rings slid over the horns. That sounds really dangerous to me MrsBiscuit. Would be interesting to hear what the Matadors think- they are the ones at the (very) sharp end of it.

The whole ambiance of the event reminds me of Shrovetide football in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. I went to watch the very drunken crowds hurling and scrabbling with a heavy leather ball in an attempt to get to the goals, which were landmarks about 4 miles apart either end of the town. My friend said "whatever you do, don't get anywhere near the ball!!!" Imagine my horror when it rolled out from under an articulated lorry and landed at my feet. I jumped backwards just as 4 very large blokes landed on it. A second slower and I would have been hospitalised without doubt. The drink flows there all weekend, morning to late night.

 

[dinosaw]

France is a strange country isn't it. Bullfighting is actually banned as is cockfighting but regions that have an unbroken tradition have exemptions from the law under some subsection, this is the case in the SW for bullfighting and in the Pas de Calais Nord for cockfighting, which is why you occasionally hear of Brits being stopped trying to smuggle their fighting cocks across the channel to fight. I think they tried for a total ban on bullfighting in France fairly recently and it was thrown out. There are quite a few videos out there of what happened to animal rights protesters when they attempted a sit in at a bull ring in a place called Rodilhan, not pretty at all. The Shrovetide football sounds almost identical to the Hallaton bottle kicking which went on beside where we used to live in Leicestershire, I have to say by the time we left it had become a magnet for every halfwit in the county rather than the contest between the men of two small villages it had originally been.

 

[chrismahon]

There are several videos Dinosaw. Obviously the Gendarmes don't mess about. There was another where they just let the crowd beat the protesters up. So the heavy Police presence was possibly more to do with protesters than drunken students.