Cowboys, and the nasty toilet woman of Aigues-Mortes

We found these handsome creatures during a canal boat ride through the Camargue. The bulls are the Camargue breed - bred for the course Camarguaise tournaments popular in these parts. I've never seen this but it sounds like a riot. Various tokens are attached to the bull's horns and around its head, and it is let loose in an arena while sporty types dressed in white (the 'raseteurs')try to detach the tokens using only their wits, agility, and a small metal implement to cut the rope. From what I've seen, it seems to involve mainly the bull chasing some poor guy until he jumps out of the ring. I'm sure the bull enjoys it though - the bulls are not hurt in this game, unlike the Spanish corrida, which ends in the death of the bull. To add to the fun, after the Course is finished, the bulls are traditionally escorted back to the farm by the Guardians (that would be the cowboys, as pictured above), while the villagers try to set them free...

Anyway, we all got off the boat and watched as this pair of Guardians put this small herd of bulls through their paces. Their horsemanship was superb - the Camargue horses they are riding were laconic, insouciant most of the time, but wheeled and galloped when required and were completely unafraid of the bulls, with their big horns.

A couple of facts for you

* Camargue bulls are lighter and quicker than corrida (Spanish bullfight) bulls, but the main difference is in the horns. Corrida bull horns point downwards, whereas Camargue bulls have lyre-shaped horns.

* Camargue horses are not born white. They can be a variety of colours when born, and gradually change to white as they grow older. By 5 years of age they have turned completely white.

We did see a couple of flamingos, but way in the distance.

After all this excitement we took a peek at the touristy little town of Aigues Mortes. After lunch and a wander around the fortified wall it was time to, well, 'go'... so we found the WC, kindly provided by the commune. It was closed, despite the fact that it was supposed to open 10 minutes before. I tried the handle and someone shouted at me. I looked around and couldn't figure out who it was, so we left, deciding to come back later. A wee (pun alert!) while later we did come back. It cost 40c to 'go', no problem, we got our money out and waited patiently for the woman behind the desk to notice us, and issue us with a ticket. (Yes! A ticket! It says 'right to enter the toilet'!!) She did eventually notice us, but not in a good way. You'll have to wait, she told us. There are only two, she said, with a very sour look on her face. When we weren't deterred she got more hostile and said you'll have to go somewhere else. There's another toilet over there. Where? we thought. We asked the ladies at the information centre. They looked embarrassed when we told them what happenned and directed us out of the fortified town and across a few streets to a park. It cost 40c as well but you had to have the right change. We didn't. Okay, we'll give this one more go. We fronted up to the WC payant one more time. There was no-one else there. All the toilets were vacant (actually there were three!). However there was some confusion with the ticket books, she had got muddled up and couldn't give us a ticket. Eventually she got sick of the sight of us and shouted at us to 'just go' so we 'went'. By the time we had 'been' she had found the right ticket book and so we paid in arrears. She gave us the wrong change, too much, which we normally would have pointed out, but she was so nasty that we decided to leave her alone with her bad mood. What a drama!

Here are some pictures of Aigues-Mortes, just to show that we don't bear a grudge ..


This is the Constance Tower



Here's a view looking over the fortified town from the Constance Tower. You can see the fortified walls if you look really closely, and in the background are great white hills of salt, drying in the sun.



This is an ancient latrine, in one of the fortified towers protecting the town. We were tempted, believe me, we were tempted ...