Hello Everybody!

After taking a long time to think about this, I’ve finally decided to make this blog, as I am a little bit tired of seeing the same comments all the time about bullfights in the newspapers and the articles online.
I am your regular 19 year old girl from Southern France, studying applied arts in University. I have been going regularly to bullfights for 5 years, but the first one I saw, ever, was in Nîmes and on the 16th of September of 2001, with bullfightersVictor Mendes, Stéphane Fernandez Meca, and Antonio Ferrera. I was 8 years old at the time, and the only real memory I have from the fight is the fact that my sister’s straw hat was blown off by the wind and that we had to get it back - so, not really much about the fight itself.
I discovered bullfights again via a television show that Canal + (the French one) made during the summer of 2007, and they showed some parts of the differents ferias around the South of France, and one night they showed a special documentary about Sebastien Castella, a young French bullfighter. I thought he was cute, and with my family we looked into the different possibilities : why not try to go to a bullfight and see him ? We studied the upcoming ferias, found out he was going to be in Béziers on the 12th of August of the same year, so we booked tickets and went. That day, it was a Mano a Mano between him and César Rincon. Castella cut one ear, two ears, and then the two ears and a tale - being your almost first bullfight and seeing that, it suddenly lights a spark that you can’t tame.
It was decided, then, that we should go see him again, this time in Nîmes, since Nîmes is the biggest bullfighting city in our part of Southern France - let’s just say I live directly in between Béziers and Arles. That day, on the 16th of September 2007, we were supposed to see Denis Loré - who did his despedida, meaning his farewell to the sport - José Tomas and Sebastien Castella, but we found out that he had been injured a few days prior to the fight and been replaced with Joselito Adame, a young mexican bullfighter. At that point of time, we didn’t really know who José Tomas was or what he represented. Denis Loré cut an ear from each of his bulls, José Tomas cut two and one, and Joselito Adame cut two and two.
It doesn’t take long before we really begin to like bullfights, there is so much about it.
We bought books, DVD’s, discovered all the websites on the internet, and since Nîmes is more or less the last real Feria in France of the season, we had an entire winter break to find out what we wanted to do next year.
All I need to say, is that ever since those two fights, I have seen 67 bullfights (including Festivals & other celebrations of bulls). 3 in 2007, 9 in 2008, 24 in 2009, 16 in 2010, 13 in 2011.. As for 2012, I’ve seen two already. And the count has just begun.

7th of April, 2012.