THE COURSE CAMARGUAISE

Originally the course » started out as a jeu taurin , where all different kinds of animals (lions, dogs, bears etc...) and farmhands came together to fight and play with a bull. The earliest record of a course camarguaise goes back to 1402 in Arles, where a course had been held in honour of Louis II the Count of Provence.

A little later, towards the end of the 19 th Century, these circus games were violently criticised and there was a move towards a less cruel form of jeu taurin, where the men atone played with the bull. Attributs (flowers, scalves, three-coloured rosettes of the particular herd of bulls, sometimes even sausages or other kinds of food) were fixed onto the horns of the bull, with the intention of being lifted off by the young amateurs.

It was during the 1890's that the bull stockbreeders realised the importance of the Camargue race of bulls, which, thanks to its morphology and fighting spirit made it more suitable for the course ralther than for work or for providing meat. Thus since the beginning of the century , top quality bulls and men who had become masters in the art of the raset, confronted one another in the little makeshift arenas (les plans). It was then that one started fixing a rosette to the horns of the bull, and primes (prizes) were awarded to the one who succeeded in removing the attribut. This is known as la course libre.

Regulations concerning the rosettes and the crochets (the picks used by the raseteurs, to remove the rosettes) were then introduced. Orly genuine raseteurs, nowadays always dressed in white, were accepted into the arena. New attributs were added a little later.

The Féderation Française de la Course Camarguaise is currently the ollicial authority reglementing all the courses.