Soaring to safety, a white-clad razeteur dodges the horns of a charging bull—and thrills spectators at a bullfight in St.-Rémy-de-Provence. Unarmed except for a small rakelike tool, razeteurs win glory by hooking a rosette from the horns. These small, half-wild Provençal bulls, revered in the Camargue region, aren't hurt during the contest, but the men who 'fight' them pay dearly if they're slow to vault the bullring wall. 'The nearer the horns,' explains one fan, 'the higher the leap.'

—From "Essence of Provence," September 1995, National Geographic magazine