Today Saintes-Maries-De La-Mer celebrated its annual Abrivado Festival that happens on the 11th of November every year, and we did not want to miss it.
The day starts with a breakfast and some horses racing on the beach about 6 kilometres out of town. We arrived early (just after 9am), we got a great parking spot in town and made our way to a cafe for our own breakfast...as had hundreds of other people. It appeared that most people were happy to stay in town and not watch the beach races....too far to go.....just like us everyone was here to watch the bulls be driven into town.
One thing that I thought was very good was that while the racing was happening well out of town, the town commemorated Remembrance Day.
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| The Local Old Soldiers |
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| Lest We Forget |
The numbers of people coming into town just kept increasing...surely the bulls would be coming soon. We made our way to the tourist office to get an idea of what time everything was happening..........we found out we still had a good hour wait before the bulls were driven in, so we found somewhere to sit and relax and wait for it to all happen. Lesley got an offer to share a seat on a power supply box by a local Boule player....smooth talker!!!
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| Lesley With Her New French Boyfriend |
The crowds were getting quite big, the streets were filling up, the arena (where the summer bull fights happen) was filling up...the atmosphere was building..
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| The Growing Crowd |
So what exactly is going to happen?
Well, the Gardians (French Camargue Cowboys) come through the town to the arena in 11 groups (Abrivados). Each group of Gardians fast trots (some gallop) a number of bulls through the streets into the arena......
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| Here They Come.... |
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| The First Abrivado Arrive |
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| The Gardians Bring the Bulls In |
As we watched each Abrivado follow the previous they came in faster and faster and the bulls were getting bigger. We found the best position was on the road as they came round the bend...there was now a small group of us in the prime position.....you just had to be ready to move sometimes as some of the Abrivados had to take a wide line around the bend as not all of the bulls wanted to be pushed in the direction the Gardians wanted.....made for a really exciting day!!!
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| Keeping The Bulls Between The Horses |
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| Trying To Ride Bulls |
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| Things Getting Quicker |
As the intensity increased, many of the young men ran out of the crowd and tried riding the bulls....mad!!!
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| Local Gardians |
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| Lesley..They Are Behind You!!!! |
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| There's A Bull In There!! |
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| No!! You Can't Take Him Home!!! |
The last couple of "abrivados" really bought the larger bulls through at quite a gallop. As the bulls got bigger the groups of Gardians got smaller and more experienced, apparently it is easier for them to contain the bulls...well it got us all very excited!!!
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| The Meaner Bulls Come Last |
As soon as the eleventh Abrivado went through the crowds started to disperse pretty quickly ....lunch time!!!
We headed straight to the great restaurant we went to last time, Restaurant L'Escale....just as well, because it was full within 10 minutes...very popular.
We loved the dishes we had here last time and just had to order them again....we both enjoyed just as much the second time.
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| One Demolished Bull Steak |
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| Remnants Of Lesley's Seafood Platter |
So we had had another wonderful day in Saintes-Maries-De La-Mer,.......the only difference was "The Mistral" (a very cold strong wind) was blowing hard today....once it blew my sunglasses clean off my face and down the road...Lesley battled with it all day...I think her hair lost and The Mistral won.
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| Lesley Losing Against The Mistral |
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