Nimes: A day of Bulls

Friday, May 29

After a less-than-sound nights sleep at a friendly French truck stop, I was far from ready to go in the morning. I rallied, however, and made it to the bus on time in order to drive (again) for a few hours to our final destination.

We stopped for one bathroom break and then again for lunch at one of the largest supermarkets I have ever seen in my life. Super Walmart and Target Greatland don't even compare in size...after GU invasion for 1 hour, I think that store staff was happy to see us go (naw..not really, we are always well behaved). Only one hour more or so (I can't remember exactly...time on the bus in an illusion) we finally arrived in Nimes (pronounced "Neem"). I bought a ticket for the bullfight to take place at 6 pm and wandered around the city until 4 pm. We lucked our with the timing of our trip because only once every year Nimes has this festival and we witnessed it! The city itself I didn't find terribly impressive, but the festival reminded me of any small town carnival you might find in the States, except add a few bulls and hoards of crazy people :)

At 4 p.m. we entered the gates of one very old colosseum and climbed huge rock steps to our seats in the nose bleed section. From the top, the whole city was visible and with the clear weather, it was beautiful! We waited around for 2 hours until 6 p.m. when the "fight" ( I put that in quotes because it is pretty obvious who wins) began. I won't go into the gory details, but again, it was a cultural experience I am very glad I had. Six bulls fought (and lost) and it lasted about 3 hours.

Following the bull fight, was one crazy crazy tradition well known throughout the world: running with the bulls. It was on a much smaller scale in Nimes than elsewhere, but it happened. About a 2-block strip was marked off and fenced in. Trucks were on either end, one where bulls were released, the other where they were corralled into. Five horsemen "escorted" the bulls from one end to the other to make sure injuries were minimal. I always thought that running with the bulls meant that they chased after you, not the case in Nimes. The people running would try to hold onto the bulls' tail...that's it! That was the whole point of the run...kinda silly if you ask me. However, two group members did get injured. One guy got semi-trampled when he wasn't paying attention to the bull behind him and another girl was pushed into the sidewalk and was scraped up. The injuries weren't serious, however, and they are recovering quite well.

All of us partook (is that a word!?!) in the festivities until almost everything was closed down. We watched two french people sing 1970s American music, danced a little in a dusty field, and walked around the town in search of a non-outhouse bathroom (which are also just holes in the ground, minus the showers when you flush) but didn't have much luck.

We boarded the bus at 1 a.m. and headed to...guess where!! Another truck stop! I won't bore you with the details of this one...but it was another cultural experience to say the least!