French Cowboys Ride the Range
France 2018
Part of the festivities associated with the celebration of ” Black Sara” was a demonstration of the skills of the “Gardiens”, the French cowboys of the Camargue. We watched as they cut a bull from the herd, wrestled it to the ground and then branded it.
Here in the U.S., a single cowboy would cut the bull or steer from the herd, lasso it, bulldog it and then brand it. Although nowadays, the herd is corralled and shunted one by one into a “squeezebox” and branded while immobilized. Much quicker and less dangerous.
In France, a group of gardiens cut the bull from the herd and then chased it toward some gardiens who were on foot. These poor wretches had to grab the frightened animal and throw it to the ground. It looked rather fraught! One of them was a gypsy girl who couldn’t have weighed more than 110 lbs. She wrestled the bull to the ground almost single-handedly. She was quite the athlete and I could see that the other gardiens held her in high esteem.
Do you like the colors of this photo? If you are old, as I am, they will remind you of the hand colored postcards of the 1930’s and 40’s. As I have told you, my parents had saved quite a few of these and I loved to look at them. Perhaps they inspired me to travel and to do Photoshop!
Getting these colors is strictly serendipity. If I knew the recipe, you’d see a lot more of these!
The gardiens wear a sort of fedora, often a battered one, and neckties, but for daily work they leave the necktie at home. Here is one at work. He holds the stick used to control and guide herds of cattle or horses. He reminded me of Clint Eastwood when he was young…sort of.
French Cowboy