Fête des Gardians
Le Fête des Gardians is the annual festival in Arles celebrating the lifestyle and traditions of the gardians. Gardians are basically the French, more refined, version of cowboys that rear bulls for delicious daube provençal. There’s an enormous parade, blessings of the animals, a queen of Arlésiennes is elected and to top it all off there’s a 4-hour long spectacle at the antique Roman arena involving horsemanship games and bull running.
The first of May is also the day where you’ll be expected to buy ‘muguets’ or ‘clochettes du porte bonheur’ (lily of the valley) in honour of French labour day….
