Exploring the ‘wild west’ of Camargue, France
“Whoopie-Ti-Yi-O – Get along little doggies” is hardly a call you’d expect to hear in the midlands of France. But in the Camargue you might be surprised.
The Camargue, with its Wild West flavor, is in southern France, a short drive from Arles. It comprises about 360 square miles in the area where two branches of the Rhone River meet the sea. It’s a regional natural park consisting of fertile marsh land with flamboyant wildlife, including pink flamingos, herons, storks and egrets. The region has received world recognition for its famous fleur de sel (sea salt), which has been harvested here since the Middle Ages.
The Manade des Baumelles ranch, a well-known tourist attraction in the central part of the Camargue, was our destination, and we were ceremoniously welcomed by the ranch hands and cowboys on horseback.
The ranch is known for its delicious barbecue lunches, which include red rice grown here in the “rice bowl” of Europe. In the dining hall there are posters of U.S. Western celebrities, a tribute to Buffalo Bill and bullfighting memorabilia and trophies won by ranch hands.
The ranch also offers performances of masterful horsemanship. The performing horses are an unusual breed in that the colts are born black but within four years their coats turn pure white.
There is a marked difference between a bullfight staged here compared to one in Spain. The black bulls raised here are very feisty and in the ring the cowboys taunt them by trying to pluck a ribbon from their horns. Thus provoked they charge the cowboys who, to escape being gored, must leap over a small fence circling the arena. Only rarely is the bull able to scale the fence in pursuit, which could endanger both cowboy and spectators in the bleachers.
Since the bulls are not killed they may continue to perform for three to 15 years before they are retired. They are considered to be smarter than Spanish bulls and as they get older they become craftier and more cunning, thus more difficult to avoid. The bullfighters in the Camargue have no formal attire as do the Spanish matadors. Unlike bullfighting tradition elsewhere, here the bulls are the celebrities, not the bullfighters.
Details: www.camargue.fr/site/manade-des -baumelles.