The French bulls die of “Old Age”…right???

A few nights before our arrival in Provence we watched a travel video that highlighted a French Bullfight and stressed how the French bulls “Die of Old Age” and the matadors spend their time jumping walls to escape the mad bulls (no killing involved).  So knowing we were doing a road trip soon we got on the internet and found a bullfight in Nimes for the 19th.  After translating the French only website, we had a confirmation in hand for tickets in the Haute A section…not cheap at 60 Euros each but for a once in a lifetime experience…priceless.

We checked into our beautiful Hotel “Le Pre Gallofre”, a refurbished French farmhouse.  We were informed that there was a free shuttle to the stadium from a nearby parking lot.  So we hopped on and when everyone else got off so did we (not a good travel tip but…)  And voila, there was the stadium.  It was magnificent (better preserved than the one in Rome).  The “will call” window was on a nearby street and not at the stadium so it took us a bit to find Street 6 but then we had tickets in hand. 

I was so excited to actually experience a bullfight in an old Roman Stadium that people experienced bullfights in over 2000 years ago.  The pomp and circumstance was inviting and breathtaking.  This part of the bullfight is called the Corrida.  The matadors wore their brightly colored ceremonial garb and the sun glistened against the sequins.  Our seats were awesome other than the smoke coming from all directions as the French are still allowed to smoke in public places.

I should have known something was up when we noticed spears hanging on the wall across the stadium.

Then came in the bull.  He tore up the gate upon his entrance so you knew it was going to be a good fight.  There were three matadors with pink capes.  They are called banderilleros or capeadores.  They seemed to be “playing” the bull and whenever he charged them, they got to hide behind the blind that protected them.    Next entered the horses covered in armor with the Picador dressed in Gold proudly riding on top with the spear in hand.  The bull seemed very attracted to the armor and headed straight for it engaging its horns right into the side of the horse (which was protected by all the armor).  My worst fears then came true as the Picador rammed the bull with the spear in the top of the back.  WARNING…don’t read on unless you are prepared.  Then the blood was squirting out the hole in the back of the bull dripping down his back.

In comes THE MATADOR.  He performs his statuesque ritual while the crowd roars and he throws off his hat…game on.   

He has the red cape and proceeds to play the bull although the bull is tiring.  The three Banderilleros come back into the ring, each with two short-brightly colored spears in hand.  They proceed one at a time to call the bull to their pink capes and stab him with their barbed darts. The crowd roars “Ole”with each passing of the cape.  They are clapping madly.  I hide my eyes.  So now the bull has been stabbed with six more darts that stay in him.  The red-caped matador re-appears and the crowd is tense.  He plays the bull some more…more “Ole”.  Then he pulls out his first sword and hits the what now seems to be the target on the back of the bull...apparently trying to reach the bulls heart.  Out comes a second sword with a cross near the tip which ends up directly in the bulls neck and spinal cord area which immediately falls the bull.  I think John and I were the only ones NOT clapping at this point.

I am in TOTAL emotional shut down at this point.  The crowd is again cheering, the men down below have brought in the horses and a hitch to drag out the bull and others are shoveling the sand to cover all the blood.  Ready for round number two.

I could have left then but John was not moving and I didn’t want to hang out in a strange city all by myself so I stay.  UNBELIEVABLE…or STUPID.

We watch two more of these events.  The second matador misses with his second sword and the bull is moaning…I am moaning.  People are jeering this time but he finishes the job shortly.  The third matador also misses a few times and it was time to GO.  I don’t know how many more times this occurred that night but I was an emotional mess…just really wanted to cry. 

John and I go to eat…I have a salmon salad…no beef tonight for me.  When we are finished with dinner the show is obviously over.  The streets are blocked off from vehicles, the bars are all prepared with their bullfight decor and their loud music just waiting for the riled up crowd to start drinking more.

We found our free bus back to the car feeling sad and defeated.  This is only my take on the whole situation. I am planning on researching the ceremonial aspects of why they do what they do when I have good internet. 

Pont du Gard

Our first mission before actually getting started on our road trip was securing tickets to the bullfight in Nimes for tonight.  That was an event in itself since the website was only in French but I had a confirmation #, row # and seat # so I knew we were good to go.  Next, the  first place on our wish list was Pont du Gard.  Another Unesco World Heritage Site. 

Before going to Pont du Gard we were hungry and stopped at a quaint restaurant outside the entrance.  We had the “Plat du Jour” which most restaurants offer and is the daily special…includes a salad and duck pate, a main course (ours was turkey leg and potatoes with a pumpkin puree and an awesome French wine sauce) plus a carafe of wine each and dessert…who can ask for any more?  The dessert was a coconut cream pie/tart and homemade coconut ice cream.  Only 12 Euros each…such a deal.  We asked to leave our car and that was no problem so we walked into the Pont du Gard and avoided the 15 Euro parking fee…made lunch even more of a deal. 

Pont du Gard is a perfectly preserved Roman aqueduct.  It was part of a 30-mile canal that dropped only one inch for every 350 feet and supplied nine million gallons of water per day to the city of Nimes…then an important Roman base.

The aqueduct is the largest the Romans ever built, the bridge is 160 feet high and was about 1,100 feet long.  Each stone weighs four to six tons and as the Romans do…relies on gravity for its arches…no mortar…only the key stone. 

Off we go

After finally receiving our new refrigerator drink drawer component we decided it was now or never.  The weather forecast showed a break in the wind on Monday and Tuesday the 17th and 18th.  Still on Monday it was blowing a good 20-30 knots but we were itchy.  Pierre stopped by and dropped off a bottle of local champagne to put in our new refrigerator drawer.  What nice people they are. On Tuesday we finally  left Gruisson.  And actually it was a good decision.  Jay Sea Dee loves the wind around 20 knots or so and we had a good morning of sailing.  In the afternoon the wind picked up a bit again but we were quickly at our destination…Port Camargue. 

The whole time in Gruisson I wouldn’t let John put up our American flag…I am always a bit afraid of unwanted attraction.  The French Gendarme was based right across from us in the harbor.  But following good nautical practice, up went the flag as we left port.  After checking in with the Capitanarie in Camargue, who shows up?…yes, the French Gendarme to check our papers.  It all went well and we were off to town to load up our “Orange” phone again.  It seems that every time John hooked up with the internet using his phone, it hooked up to “Orange” and started the sucking sound of our money going down the drain. 

Port Camargue is HUGE!  It has over 2,000 berths and around 200 visitor berths so we knew there would be no problem finding a place for a few nights. It is one of the largest ports in the WORLD.  

We rented a car and set off to explore Provence.

Defi The Wind in Gruisson

The last four days have been very windy and I guess that is appropriate for the festival this weekend. It is all about over 1,000 windsurfers getting together for a race to "Defi The Wind". John and I walked over yesterday afternoon but the activities had already finished for the day so we looked at the schedule and noticed the Big Race started today at 10:30. We were there and waiting for the Starting Horn to blow. The winds have been constant at 25-30 knots according to our boat gauge. I can't imagine holding onto a sail very long in that kind of wind. The start was phenomenal and then a few minutes later they were all out of sight. They had to go quite the distance and do it twice. The finish was by the sailboat which was anchored out but by the time the first finishers came in the windsurfers were so spread out that it seemed like a no contest finish.

The yellow plants.

I found out that the yellow plants that we saw planted throughout France (See the Blog photo on May 1st under "We're Back") are called Rapeweed. It is what they use to make Canola Oil. Just wanted to pass that on.

Splashdown!

After a week of preparations, Jay Sea Dee finally got back to where she is most happy…in the water. It all went very smoothly and then Pierre (owner of Nautiland) got on board to show us the new docking system. It turned out that it is much like snagging a mooring ball. I was a bit worried about it because the moorings we saw didn’t seem to have the pendants attached and nobody could explain the process of catching the line to me in English. Pierre went a-stern and using the boat hook snagged the line (there was a pendant attached to ours…yeah!) then followed it to the bow where our line was waiting to thread the needle and re-attach to the bow cleat. All that worry for not.

Gruisson and Narbonne

Here are a few photos I took while John was waiting in the Orange (like Verizon) line to recharge our phone with more money. In Narbonne, they have many canals and houseboats…a lot like Amsterdam.

A donut?

After a long day of sanding and painting…we decided to get a quick dinner and relax a bit.  Not the usual 8:30pm dinner tonight.  So we drove to Narbonne and found a drive-thru named “Quick”(No McDonalds to be found believe it or not).  Try ordering fast food in French.  It was pretty funny because the gal on the intercom kept saying “Chocolat” and we kept saying “No”.  Finally she gave up and we said “Finished” and proceeded to get our drinks and our bag of fish sandwiches and french-fries.  After going through the bag we found we had also received a Vanilla covered Donut…I am pretty sure we NEVER said donut but it was a funny discovery.

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Side Trip to Barcelona…Yes, in Spain Again.

We needed three more AGM batteries for the boat and for some reason couldn’t get them in France so we found a distributor in Barcelona who had them in stock so off we went…another road trip. On the way we drove across the Pyrenees mountains and noticed a new dusting of snow on top.

We enjoyed a nice evening with friends from “Can Drac”, Franc and Andrea. They are expecting a baby in June so have moved off of their boat into a “flat” for now. The poppies are out and beautiful..enjoy!

Some Things We’ve Learned

Today we are in a Hurricane…at least it is as close to what we think one is like (we really don’t know being from Colorado…LOL).  It is blowing 110 kph, raining like cats and dogs and is only 4 degrees Celsius which is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit.  Needless to say there was no boat work done anywhere near us.  So we chose to drive around Narbonne and run a few errands.  Here is what we learned:

1)  When in France, it is easy to buy an “Orange” phone sim card and charge it up with minutes from “Orange”.  You must have an un-locked phone though.  But now we can call locally very cheaply as they gave us a local phone number.  It is a cheap way to keep in touch internationally as well.

2)  The Europeans have adopted a Chip system in their credit cards that the American credit cards don’t have.  We have run into issues at a couple of restaurants already that can’t accept our credit cards because of this so we have learned to carry more cash than usual…just in case.

3)  When parking here, they have a “validation”  machine located somewhere in the parking lot but you need to pay for your time there BEFORE trying to get out the exit gate.

4)  When buying produce in the grocery stores here, you must take it to the “UPC” lady who prints the UPC code for you.  Otherwise you get to the check out lane and there is much confusion and anger as they try to explain the process to you in FRENCH…LOL

We’re Back

Yes, we are back in France…Yee Haw!…or should I say Tres Bon.  We brought five huge suitcases packed full of clothes, American food that we can’t find here and boat parts.  I purchased the extra luggage allowance when I originally bought our British Airline tickets.  You get one free 50 pound checked bag per person and I purchased three more for $208 USD.  Then when we arrived at the gate we had to pay $50 USD more per bag because they weighed 70 pounds each.  But still this way was way more economical than shipping ahead via UPS or FEDEX.  They wanted up to $500 per bag to ship.  Thank God they all fit into our rental car.

We saw the old “Concord” Trans-Atlantic Jet as we left Paris.  It took us three hours to get through Paris since it was rush hour.

As we drove to Gruisson, France we saw many bright yellow fields…we are assuming it is Mustard.  We also saw wind generator farms.

One last item from our rental car adventure was re-fueling the car.  We know it takes diesel but which one is it?

 

So we spent today sanding the hull and polishing the chrome…until it rained…boo hoo.  Now off to Carrefour (the French version of Walmart).

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Cadeques Spain October 28, 2009