It is a warm evening in late May 2012 and I sit on the wooden benches of the ancient Nimes arena, joining in the celebration of 60 years of the local Feria de Pentecote.
By happy accident rather than design I lucked upon an event not seen in France before and only rarely seen in Spain.*
I’d been at a conference at Montpelier for a week and had a day off before heading back to Paris. The manager of my hotel suggested I catch the train to Nimes for the feria, warning only that I should beware of strong drink and drunken company.
“But you will enjoy the toros,” she said as I walked out the door.
There were two bullfights – corrida – that day so I bought tickets to both.
The midday corrida followed the usual order of proceedings – six bulls shared between three matadors. That was my first corrida and an extraordinary enough event that I wrote about here and here.
In the evening matador Javier Castaño would fight six Miura bulls seul – solo.
One man and six bulls?
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