Danger! Taurine Manifestation

My host family took me to the beach the other day. We piled in the car and drove, and drove... right past the beach that is closest to us.  I was officially confused - which is nothing new these days. My smile and nod approach often means I am going along with the flow and figuring out what they said later on. In this case they kept rambling on about about horses and torros in a tone that suggested they were giving me a treat and I should be excited. Ooooookkk???  I had told them I liked horses but I couldn't really figure out why we were heading to the beach to see horses when their are numerous farms in walking distance from their house.  But hey I was just along for the ride camera in hand. We drove past a cute little inlet that was teeming with flamingos and we pulled into a beach in the next town over. It was packed. I'm talking Deep Cove on Penguin Plunge day or English bay during the Festival of Lights kind of packed.  Took us forever to find parking and there was a stream of people heading down to the beach.

At the entrances to the beach were big barred fences and nobody was actually on the beaches. Everyone was clustered around the bars and watching for something. Laurence, the mother of the family I am staying with, told me to get my camera ready and to hurry to the bars. Which I did, clueless as to what I was supposed to be filming. Then again I am just happy when I can actually understand an instruction.  Finally I saw what we and hundreds of other people had come to see.  There were a bunch of horses being ridden down the beach, about 10 or so,  ridden in  a mighty ducks flying V formation by men and women of all ages.

They passed, and then another group passed and I still didn't think I was getting the whole picture. Why would people be hiding behind the fences to watch the pretty ponies parade by. Finally the third group of horses passed us and I could see that inside the ring of horses were a couple of big, black, long horned bulls.

 DING. lightbulb moment.

From what I could gather from her french explanation the "gaurdiens" aka the people on horse back in funky coloured shirts are transporting the "taureaus" (french for bull) from their ranches down the beach to a festival. I'm not sure why the beach is the preferable transport route. Perhaps there is less chance of a loose in the city?  Maybe because bulls don't like to swim so the water is a natural barricade? Or perhaps it is just tradition?. These questions are too difficult to get accurate answers across the great english-french divide. However,  English or French there are still idiot teenagers with death wishes who were added entertainment  sprinting in behind the bulls, grabbing their tails and riding behind the convoy in the sand.

 I forget how close Montpellier is to Spain. It is only a couple hours drive to the border. So it does make sense that they would have a lot of overlap in culture.  In some parts of the southern region of France there is what we think of as traditional spanish bull fighting (aka to the death). But here at this festival they apparently do a much milder version where they tie decorations onto the horns and let the bulls loose in a ring. People then go in and try to grab the decorations to win monetary rewards.

Anyways it was a very impressive thing to watch.  It seemed to go on with out end. We watched at least 10 different groups go by and they just kept coming. There were elements of tradition, pageantry and horsemanship all at work and they were just fearless bull moving machines.

Mathis and I  with the horses in between convoys

It was a very interesting morning, especially since I just thought we were going to the beach. Not understanding the main points of a conversation kind of sucks sometimes. Like when you go to the store to buy lotion for mosquito bites and the pharmacist gives you bee sting relief (the french really should put pictures on their boxes).  But other times, like on this excursion it just adds a fun element of surprise :) 

Seeing this sign on the way IN instead of the way OUT might have helped clear things up a bit quicker