Okay, this was a really amazing way to experience to Arles arena (which was built by the romans and is still in use today. Twice a week in the summer they stage what they call "bull games" or bull fighting Carmargue style. The bull is not injuried in any way - in fact I think they enjoy the game almost as much as the toreadors. They attach ribbons to the bull's horns and the young men (there are about 12- 15 in the ring with the bull) have 15 minutes to try to get the ribbons off the horns. Then there is a brief rest period and another bull is brought out. The bulls mostly won the competition from what we could see. As the bull runs towards the young men, they leap over the walls at full tilt which is almost as much fun to watch as the bulls. They land, a la spiderman-style, on the fence with a loud thud. They must come out quite bruised.
It got a bit scary when the second bull jumped over the arena wall right in front of us! No one was expecting it and there was lot of screaming and the people in the arena area just behind the wall (not spectators) all jumped INTO the arena. We were in the second row, so he was pretty close to us but we were never in danger. Another one of the bulls repeated jumped the wall over at the end of the arena. I even managed to capture one of them jumping the wall. It was great to see everyone scatter and then they had to work to get the bull to come back into the arena. The arena looks like it was empty but it was just that everyone was sitting on the shady side. We estimated that there were probably 2,000 or so watching. It was hot, but not too bad in the shade.
I definitely couldn't ever go see a real bull fight. Even this started to make me a little uncomfortable as I couldn't tell if the bull was feeling taunted or was 'playing'. But I do know that he wasn't being hurt. It was a really unique experience.
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