In an arena in the southern French village of Raphèle-lès-Arles on a torpidly hot July afternoon, a young black bull paws the floor next to the exit door. Eight raseteurs – the white-clad runners whose job is to seize tokens fixed to the animal – yell to get its attention. This is an event dedicated to working out if these uncastrated juveniles have the nasty streak needed to become stars of course camarguaise, the non-fatal sport that is the cousin of bullfighting.
Much of the Camargue, the delta region at the terminus of the Rhône river, is crazy about anything with two horns, a nose-ring and a problem with the colour red. Lighter and more fleet-footed than its Iberian counterpart, with upright, lyre-shaped horns, the Camargue bull is lionised in the sports sections of local newspapers and commemorated with statues at the entrance to many villages.
