Day 29

Day 29:

Saturday, April 18, 2009: Today, we wanted to go somewhere again so Shawna, Lance, Melissa, and I went to the train station. We bought tickets for Arles with the intention of catching the bus to The Camarague. It’s supposed to be one of the prettiest places in France. It’s a nature preserve on the Mediterranean with wild white horses and flamingos, etc. We wanted to go to a ranch and ride horses. That was the plan anyway.

Well we got on the noon train to Arles and found out that the next bus was not until 4pm. We really didn’t want to wait around and be in The Camarague for an hour before coming home to get our train later. We failed on that planning; my first as a travel agent.

Shawna hadn’t been to Arles with the rest of us the first weekend so she was content with playing there. We agreed, thinking that we had seen everything there our first weekend; we were wrong. We went to the real Van Gogh gardens, not the public parks where we were before. Then we went to the café that Van Gogh painted; it is one of his most famous pieces of work. Shawna has the poster on her wall at school so she really liked seeing that.

Afterwards was by far the most interesting part of our day. We bought tickets for the Corredia (bullfight) that was cancelled on Easter weekend because of rain and storms. As American students in France, we wanted to take in as much of the culture as possible. This may have been more than we bargained for. The Corredia is a Spanish custom but because of the close proximity to Southern France it has been adopted here as well. This was also a good way for us to see the Roman Arena that we otherwise would have had to pay for.

So we get to our seats at the Corredia and there is a band and people selling drinks and snacks. It looks really interesting. At the beginning, all the Matadors process out and present themselves to the president who judges the competition. We weren’t really sure of the scoring system – more on this later. There are also men on horses and other Matadors that are assistants. On the schedule today were three main Matadors – all younger than me – and “fighting” six bulls.

As the spectacle begins, we quickly discover how gory this is going to be. We were fascinated and we all took lots of pictures then we realized what they were really doing. The bull has a ribbon nailed (maybe) in its back and at first they are just oley-ing with it. Then the men on horses come out and one of them jabs and stabs at the ribbon with a really long pole with a spike on the end. The bull reacts by attacking the horse – really sad to watch – but the horse is protected with something like chainmail.

After that, the real brutality begins. The Matador stabs sticks with nails in the end into the Toro’s (bull’s) back. This happens six times; each time becomes worse than the other. Finally, towards the end, the Matador does the most damage by sticking a sword into the bull’s back. The sword is probably a foot and a half long. This brings the bull close to death, but he still has fight in him. The oley-ing continues. Maybe they get points for that?
The sounds that the bull makes are still in my mind. They are awful cries and blood flows from its back and mouth. Finally, when the bull is about to give in to death it lies down, still fighting the taunts of the Matador with small bursts of energy. Now sitting and waiting for death, another Matador stabs the bull in the base of its head and kills it – hopefully instantly but not always.

Next, the horses are brought back in and the bull is chained to them and paraded around the arena for all to see. They also cut off its ears. The bull is pulled off and the Matador walks around the arena to acknowledge his fans. He throws the bull’s ears to two of his most adoring fans – a trophy of his conquest. He bows to the judge and exits. The arena workers come in and re-chalk the ground for the next round.

After this carnage, we all just looked at each other stupefied. We really paid to see this?! We felt like awful people by just watching it; let alone participating. This type of thing would never be allowed in America yet it was like a national sport. It seemed like I was at a Reds’ game of sorts. We looked at the program and that’s when we discovered that we would be seeing this occur five more times. Excellent.

The next Matador wanted to taunt the Toro by sitting on the ground right in front of the doors upon its initial release; smart right. Well the Toro is pissed and comes out and charges him and he can’t get out of the way fast enough and he gets trampled by the Toro. His legs go flying in the air and we all thought he was dead. I knew this was an awful place. He runs off and gets looked at and decides to go back out to fight. Basically, the same carnage occurs again; same blow-by-blow.

Only this time, when the bull attacks the horse, the horse loses its balance and falls; throwing the man on it as well. The bull is still attacking the horse and I thought that it was dead too. The other Matadors distract the bull long enough for them to stand the horse back up – he is okay.

So this was our second day in Arles. It began to rain and I bought a poncho. After the Corredia, we exited the arena and it just so happened that we walked by the butcher that was chopping up the bulls after their deaths and they were bringing the last bull there right now. We stood there mesmerized as its body passed us in the streets. We walked to the front of the arena and the Matador that won – the third one – was signing autographs on his way out. Melissa got an autograph and I took his pic.

Let’s say that no one was hungry after that. Arles is like Nimes in that everything closes at 7 p.m. We walked around for a bit then waited for our train at the station. After returning for dinner, we went to Lance’s and played cards. No one was really in the mood to go out. Now I can say that I’ve seen a Corredia. I’m not sure if I would ever do it again although I was fascinated. I don’t like the idea of taunting and torturing an animal for sport but the unpredictable-ness of it is what undoubtedly brings in the crowds.

I’ve posted two videos of the massacre on Facebook. Viewer discretion is advised.