Croque Vaches

Mid-July, Aimy and I were able to watch another traditional event in the south west of France. It goes by many names - Intervache, toroball - but in Parentis-en-Born, the city where we saw the show, and the one where I lived for 8 months in 2007-8, it is called the Croque Vaches (the Cow Crunch).

The Croque Vaches is a variant of the Course Landaise, an ancient form of bullfighting in Gascony, the area where we live. Bullfighting without bloodshed has been part of local culture for hundreds of years, and several versions of the Course Landaise are performed here throughout the summer. I hope to see the original version at some point in my life, but this July, Aimy and I went to see the very first Croque Vaches of the season. In this event, two teams of amateurs from two different cities (usually the host city against a visiting team) face off in several games throughout the course of the evening, but the games involve a vachette - a young cow with horns bred especially for the games. Since the Croque Vaches is for amateurs, the vachettes are young and quite light compared to the bulls used in the Course Landaise.

Though there are many different games perfomed during these events, the evening where Aimy and I went with friends showcased some of the crowd's favourites, such as the banana tree, where one member of each team had to run across the arena, climb a pole with an umbrella on top and try to grab one of the bananas hanging from the umbrella and take it back across the arena to his teammate, who had to eat it, and do so as many times as possible during the 5 minute game... all without getting hit by the vachette. Of course, there are people on his team that try to distract the animal and get him to charge away from the banana grabber, but there are also the opposing team members who try to send the vachette towards the other team.

The neutral 'rodeo clowns' parading
before the start of the games.
Just like in a rodeo, they are there
to help distract the animals and
keep the participants from getting
injured

The two team leaders introducing
their teams and the first event

Here comes the vache!

Go Red Team! Climbing the pole to
grab a banana

Running away...

This first game was followed by a series of other games, where the team members had to run through the pool in the middle, grab a big tin can and flatten it with a hammer enough so that it would fit through the slot in the box on the opposite side of the arena. The team to get the most cans in the box by the end of the allotted time won the most points.

You can just see them trying
to flatten the cans on stumps on the
far side of the arena

There were several other games that I enjoyed. For exaple, one really thrilling game had pairs of players had a piece of fabric resembling the toreador's cape and had to try to get the vachette (a much smaller and younger one than in these pictures) to run between them under the cape. Another one had one player in a plastic oil drum holding a huge hoop, while teammates would try to tempt the animal into running through it, with each passage of the bull through the hoop counting for one point.

One of the cows wouldn't come out of
the pool, so they had to send the
rancher out with the mama cow to
try to tempt him out of the arena!

Trying to decide what to do...

There were also a few games where the public could participate, with and without animals. One of them had young women come into the arena... they were asked to run across the arena (through the pool, of course!) and, once on the other side, put their forehead against a pole standing upright on the ground, and turn around in a circle ten times, and then carry a pie plate full of whipped cream back across the arena to their teammates. I laughed so hard I almost cried... those poor volunteers! They also had a game where they attached a bow to a cow's head and offered prizes to the member of the public who was brave and agile enough to take it off... and that's when you realize just how good the 'amateurs' who are part of these Intervache teams really are, because you are really a heartbeat away from getting seriously injured at one of these events.

Though Aimy was very tired - we didn't get home until after 11:30 - she enjoyed seeing the cows and going out with me and my friends and their children. The Croque Vaches is a big part of life here in our area and I'm sure we'll be going to see one again soon.

More Summer Fun

More photos of the girls enjoying summer!

Sisters at the lake

Love her hair in this photo!

Playing with the neighbours's son at the lake

Another beautiful sunset

In the pool with their cousin

So proud of her hair

Icecream!

Aimy wanted strawberry

Action shot!

They both have purses like mummy

Sunset at the lake

Aimy playing bocce with one of
my good friend's daughters

At the shady playground - a blessing on hot summer days!

Having fun together

Tempo Latino

One of my friends from the orchestra is from further inland, in the Gers department. When she was growing up, she and her family would often go to the Tempo Latino festival in Vic Fezensac, and since the festival started on her birthday this year, she bought some tickets and asked the group of us if any of us were interested in going with her on opening night. I was more than excited about going, and not only because Tempo Latino is the oldest Salsa and Afro-Latino music festival in France and the second biggest in Europe.

We got there quite early - it takes just over 2 hours to drive there from Biscarrosse, but since the festival is so popular and we weren't sure we would be able to get a good parking space if we got there too late - so we spent a bit of time wandering through the town and admiring the night market before grabbing a bite to eat and listening to some of the peformers in the small street concert venues. Unfortunately for me I got stung by a hornet on the top of my head on the way there so I only started to enjoy the music after the drugs kicked in and my head stopped throbbing!

Some of the cool buildings in Vic

Entrance to the arena where the concerts take place

Spectators in one of the street venues

Dinner! (and empty beer cups...)

This year's opening act was Ernesto "Tito" Puentes (link only in French), a Cuban trumpet player, who was also this year's sponsor. Angel Yos y La Mecanica Loca opened for him, and though they were quite good, I adored Tito's afro-cuban music and stage presence. He invited a special guest onto stage with him - Ibrahim Maalouf, a French trumpet player - who blew us away, so much so that Laure and I went to see him again in September when he came to Bordeaux. The atmosphere at the concerts was amazing, and it was totally worth being stung in the head.

People dancing on the arena floor to
Angel Yos

Ernesto Puentes conducting his big band

Playing his trumpet

Ibrahim Maalouf

Amazing!

Pretty impressive for an
87-year-old!!

Toro de Fuego and Bastille Day

The city where we live puts on several celebrations around July 14th, our national holiday. This year on the 13th they had a Toro de Fuego (Fire Bull) in the centre of town, and the four of us went to see it. I had never seen this particular tradition before, and was excited to go. 

A Toro de Fuego is not actually a real bull that is set on fire... It's a bull made of metal which has been decorated with fireworks. A very brave individual dances around with the bull on his back while the fireworks go off in a continuous chain reaction. 

Unfortunately I don't have a better
picture - my phone isn't the best for
photos - but here's the second bull
being carried through the streets

No one is really sure where the tradition comes from, though some sources online claim that it was used as a ruse in 3rd century warfare. At that time, the actual animal would have been used and its horns would have been covered in pitch or resin and set on fire before being sent towards the enemy. However, other historians claim that this is not true at all, and that the Toro is actually a result of wanting to combine traditional southern bull fighting with fireworks. And there is evidence that a bull was set on fire for entertainment at Louis XIV's wedding to Marie-Thérèse of Austria.

Whatever the origins, it was a very interesting spectacle. Aimy loved it - she kept telling me how pretty it was, and that she loved the fireworks.

As I said the photos aren't great, but
you can see the man holding the
bull in this one

Again here you can see the guy
underneath

Not sure if this will work but
the video shows some of what
we saw that night

Sparks

There was a spinning wheel
on the back that lit up about halfway
through the show

Fireworks!

The whole bull ablaze

The next evening was the traditional fireworks at the beach. The girls were both exhausted from the late night so they stayed at home and I went with one of my good friends. Though they were not in the same category as the Celebration of Light, the 14th of July fireworks were quite good. Again, sorry for the poor quality images.

It was a fun few days, but it was just the beginning...