After two weeks of nonstop, very loud cicadas in the south of France, I was looking forward to some good traffic noise in Paris. And I got it.
While in the south, I was lucky enough to see a variety of bullfighting called bull racing (la course camarguaise), which does not involve killing the bull or even spiking it to get it mad.
It's an extremely popular spectator sport in the Camargue. Every town seemed to have an arena. The one in Arles, where I was, dates from Roman times. A half-dozen bull runners, athletic young men dressed in white, compete to snatch a rosette from between the the bull's horns. They have to run really fast to get away and jump out of the arena, over the fence and across the corridor separating the bull ring from the stands. Not being a bullfight fan, I didn't realize that the bull regularly jumps over the fence, too, or crashes through it. It's all very exciting for a short time. Then you start to wonder about the poor bull.
Many bulls become famous. According to Wikipedia, some even get lucrative product endorsement contracts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfight
On-topicity: All the Camargue bulls are "noir."
At 01:16 PM 25/07/2008, Jean-Pierre Jacquet wrote:
>Cicadas are also chirping in here in CT and I'll join you with a glass
>of Faugères; and will carry on in Béziers later for the feria.
>Speaking of ferias, bullfighting can be pretty noir, but I suspect
>rara-avian listeros would have little time for it, so I'll stop right
>here.
>
>On Jul 25, 2008, at 10:18 AM, Steve Novak, aka the Montois of Detroit, wrote:
>
>> Cicadas just started chirping in southeast Michigan yesterday for
>> the first
>> time this year after a lot of wet weather...thank god for the
>> wonderful
>> chirping...which brings us here close to Costa-Rica and southwestern
>> France...
>>
>> I’ll drink to that,
>>
>> ...a noir syrah of course...
>>
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