Cow fights in Martigny

My friend Emily is visiting from Canada, poor girl. She just arrived in Paris, then took the TGV to Lausanne and we didn't even go home, just put her stuff in a locker at the train station and then off to Martigny to watch some of the last cow fights of the year. Here we are on the train enjoying a treat. Carly couldn't wait apparently.

The Foire du Valais exposition was much bigger than I was expecting, there were many tents, like a home and garden show, selling vacuums and tools to slice vegetables etc.

Here's Carly posing with the cow couch I always wanted.

There were also farm animals, performances and even a display of the terracotta warriors.

They also had this competition for tradespeople ongoing and they were building roofs and installing toilets.

Martigny is the city at the base of the valley that goes to the Grand St-Bernard pass (where the dogs come from) and they have a museum in the town and they also had a display at the festival.

However, the big excitement was the cow fights. These are Herens cows and bred as dairy cows. The fights in Martigny are the most well known in Switzerland and were held in an original roman amphitheater. The cows were waiting behind the walls (and another waiting pen across the street). There were at least 200 cows involved in the fights.

The cows were brought into the ring and allowed to mingle. If they felt like pushing around another cow for dominance they would stand close, toss up dirt with their hooves and lower their heads and lock horns. However, a lot of the fighting was the cows standing around.

After a while there would be cow pushing, and if the fight got exciting there was cheering from the crowds.

 

And cows who weren't interesting in fighting, or who had lost would be asked to leave the ring. The ends of cow fights were quick and decisive. Two cows would be pushing heads and all of a sudden one would stop, turn and run. The winner might give chase for a few strides but generally wasn't that interested once she had shown she was dominant.

All the cows wore really really big bells and you could hear the clanging all day long.

The cows were very docile around people and I never saw them turn on the people who were handling them. If the owners wanted to break up a fight they would step in and grab the horn and the bell strap and turn the cows head, pulling her away.

Of course, the other main thing the spectators did (besides cheer the cows) was drink Valais wine. You would see someone winding through the stands carrying a bottle of wine with a stack of glasses balanced on top. No one was moving from the stands, clearly people had arrived early in the morning (and paid their 35 CHF for a seat) and they stayed there the entire day. We paid less to stand and watch but I did buy some wine.

At the end of the day we boarded the train and headed back to Lausanne.