Course camarguaise

A more indigenous genre of bullfighting is widely common in the Provence and Languedoc areas, and is known alternately as course libre or course camarguaise. This is a bloodless spectacle for the bulls in which the objective is to snatch a rosette from the head of a young bull. The participants, or raseteurs, begin training in their early teens against young bulls from the Camargue region of Provence before graduating to regular contests held principally in Arles and N mes but also in other Proven?al and Languedoc towns and villages. Before the course, an abrivadoa running of the bulls in the streetstakes place, in which young men compete to outrun the charging bulls. The course itself takes place in a small often portable arena erected in a town square. For a period of about 15 20 minutes, the raseteurs compete to snatch rosettes cocarde tied between the bulls horns. They do not take the rosette with their bare hands but with a clawshaped metal instrument called a raset or crochet hook in their hands, hence their name. Afterwards, the bulls are herded back to their pen by gardians Camarguais cowboys in a bandido, amidst a great deal of ceremony. The stars of these spectacles are the bulls, who get top billing and stand to gain fame and statues in their honor, and lucrative product endorsement contracts.