A recent article by Antonio Lorca, the bullfight critic of El País, denigrating the corrida in France, has caused controversy but has simply revealed his ignorance of the French taurine scene.

Lorca headed his report of the second televised corrida of Nîmes’ Pentecost feria - Finito de Córdoba, Diego Urdiales and Juan Leal with bulls of Fuente Ymbro- ‘Desvergüenza nimeña’ (‘The shamelessness of Nîmes’). He went on to say, “With the good opinion one has in Spain about the French afición, television arrives and it all falls apart. This was an unbecoming afternoon of the three toreros, far below the bulls; of the public, rowdy and keen to award ears; and of the president, who showed that his criteria have nothing to do with the demands that are supposed to exist beyond the Pyrenees [...] ‘You always have a better opinion about what you don't know.’ What a great truth! How much we admired the French aficionados when their bullfights were not televised in Spain...”

At least Snr. Lorca admitted he knew nothing of the corrida in France. On the cultoro website, fellow critic Paco March took him to task. After pointing out that watching a corrida on television, as Lorca had done in this instance, and being in the plaza are two different experiences, March wrote, “I do not know the French plazas that the perceptive critic has visited - although I suspect not many - but I do know where, for over 30 years, I have been […] and there are many of them, both in the south-east and in the south-west. From Arles, Nîmes, Istres, Béziers, Palavas or Céret to Mont de Marsan, Bayonne, Dax or Vic. Each one has its own personality and tastes and those who organize the ferias know this and try to satisfy them. Therefore, it’s unjust, to say the least, to write off an afición capable of getting excited by an artistic lance or rising to their feet in response to a properly-executed tercio de varas. There are plazas, such as Céret and Vic, where the bull is the main protagonist and others, such as those mentioned, where the eclecticism in tastes allows that, in the same feria of two, three or four festejos, there is room for bullfighters and brands of very different types.

“Perhaps Lorca hasn’t been to Céret, possibly nor to Arles, Istres, Vic or Mont de Marsan… If he has been and writes what he has written, worse still.

“Taurine France, I do not hide it, has captivated me. Fans still regard bullfighters as heroes and treat them as such. The bull, not only in the aforementioned and other "torista" plazas, deserves the utmost respect and is expected to be treated thus during the lidia. The streets of France’s cities en fêtes (and not only during them, but all year round) are an unapologetic exaltation of bullfighting. In the bookstores, works with bullfighting themes proliferate, in sight, without being hidden; the shop windows, bars and restaurants exhibit ornaments, photographs, bullfighting objects...

“And, the most important thing: France’s bullfighting cities, united without distinction of ideological colour, have achieved the protection, armour-plating and promotion of bullfighting with legislative and administrative initiatives that enable resistance to the continuous harassment of the powerful animalist lobby.”

In his enthusiasm for France, perhaps Snr. March was too polite to draw attention to Nîmes long-held reputation for being the most generous of all the leading French bullrings.

That generosity was displayed on both days of this year’s feria, each of which saw a French torero carried through the hallowed Consuls’ Gate after cutting three ears. The first fortunate was the nimeño El Rafi, who’d taken the alternativa at Arles the week before, and the second the tremendista arlesien Juan Leal (whose career, interestingly, has been favoured more in Nîmes than in his home city).

Whilst Paco March is right to draw attention to the standing of bullfighting in France compared to Spain, these are times of change for the French afición. Sébastien Castella and Juan Bautista are no longer active toreros, but rather empresarios, challenging Simon Casas in competing for plazas and moulding the future French feria. On the sand, attention is now focused on Juan Leal (quite capable of becoming a leading torero in both France and Spain despite his tremendista leanings) and the newer, more classical, hopes of Adrien Salenc - also from Nîmes - and El Rafi.

Vive la France!

Four faenas: one common factor

Television and los toros