Hopped on the train from Barcelona to Nimes, France. Once again, we could see the temperature change drastically. A good ten degrees change between the two destinations! We met a couple from Trois Rivieres, Quebec who were gallivanting across Europe as we were.
Upon arriving in Nimes, we had the pleasure of hearing our names being called. My uncle Gerry and Aunt Shoko live in Nimes but were unfortunately out of town in Spain at the time we arrived. But they sent us a lovely fellow in the form of Clément to pick us up! Fantastic!
What’s behind curtain number one?
Clément was a great tour guide around the city. First off, he managed to score us some tickets to the Roman Amphitheater to watch the bullfight! We dropped off our bags in his car and walked the streets of Nimes to this mammoth arena. I have never seen anything like it. From Wikipedia, this amphitheater was built 2000 years ago and is amongst the oldest standing amphitheaters in France! Clément managed to sneak ourselves into a better section of the amphitheater and I could see why. I didn’t feel that the place had a sold out crowd. I was quite surprised as Vero and I had thought that it would be tough to get tickets to the bullfight.
Professor and Tour Guide Extraordinaire…Clement!
This was my first experience watching a bullfight and it was quite interesting. While many people do not condone such actions (even Barcelona has outlawed any bullfights), I felt it was of interest to watch the fans interact with their specific cheers and chants (much like a hockey game) and the quiet of the crowd when the matador is dealing with the bull.
Imagine the amount of people who have sat in this place.
You should take a look at Wikipedia for the process of what bullfighters go through. Essentially they have various members of the team going in to stab the bull until the final act where the head honcho himself, the matador with a cape and a sword comes in and does a little dance with the bull which impresses people. It was impressive to see some of them be so close to the bull with a constant fear of death on them! I’m sure if I had watched a dozen bullfights in my life, I would understand why some moves astounded the crowd while other moves were normal. But to me, it was just nerve wracking to see the matador dance around and taunt the bull. In the end, if the matador’s aim is true, he stabs the bull between the shoulder blades into their heart. Now, if the matador is quite skilled/lucky, his hits the target, and all is done in a few seconds after. The bull collapses. However, there were a few matadors that simply missed which wasn’t good at all…there’s a sword sticking out from between its shoulder blades and getting furious! So they have to go for the second attempt.
Clement, watch out for that Croc!
In the end, we watched a good six or seven rounds and I started to get the hang of it and understand what makes a good matador and what makes a GREAT matador. I wasn’t really shocked by the killing of the bulls themselves, although I can see why some people are squeamish around this activity.
We saw this movie poster around Europe ALL THE TIME. I always laughed at its tagline.
Clement showed us around the ampitheater for a bit and then we went outside to the festival which had people in the streets having a great time. I had a beer while Vero and Clement each ordered some liquor called 51 (or was it 50? I’m sure Clement will be reading this and correct me.) Funnily enough, Vero does NOT drink liquor nor does she appreciate the taste so she told me afterwards that she didn’t know which one was worse…this drink of the espresso! I had a great laugh at that.
We toured around Nimes, seeing La Maison Carrée (a Roman temple), and other sights. We decided to stop for some supper and Clement had heard of my new love for paella so we found a place that served it. It was interesting to see that you could only order one form of paella…the shellfish kind, whereas in Barcelona (probably home of the paella) there were many variations…beef, lamb, chicken, etc. Either way, I was discovering a new love for shellfish as long as it was in this dish and it was a tasty treat. Vero had some sort of dish with bull in it and we joked about how it was quite fresh and must have been straight from the bullfight!
An interjection which does not necessarily stick to chronological order…a few days later Vero and I are ordering some Vietnamese food on our way back to Uncle Gerry’s apartment and she’s trying to tell us that she won’t accept our ten Euro bill. We didn’t know what was going on until the next day when someone explained that it was a fake! I have a feeling that we got stuck with it from the waitress at the restaurant where Clement brought us! However, we are not entirely sure as there was an entire day before we realized we had the fake. Anyhow, I am now the proud owner of a forgery that the Canadian tourists took with open arms!
Paella!
Clement was nice enough to drive us to the apartment, show us how the keys worked and left us with some travel tips for the upcoming days. Always the gentlemen with a good sense of humour, we enjoyed his company and feel lucky to have met him. Clement, if you are reading this, you are welcome at our house in Canada anytime!
We were quite tired so we didn’t spend too much time awake, however I did spy some microbrewery beer that Uncle Gerry left us (well, me!) and I dipped into it. I cannot remember what the name of it was at the moment (this is the problem with writing a blog entry nearly three weeks later!) but it was quite tasty. I feel bad for leaving with him what I can say was some really crappy beer in its place! You can buy beer quite cheap in the stores…I picked up a ten pack of beer for 3Euro.