Out on our bikes this week, my French cycling companion and I were amused to pass a hunter waiting patiently by the edge of the road…we cycled a further 50 metres around the corner and there was a stag happily eating grass in the meadow, just out of his sight.

There are restrictions on deer numbers around here, because of the damage an uncontrolled population can cause, and occasionally even outside the hunting season an errant or troublesome deer is tracked down and shot.

This involves a lot of hunters encircling an area, and then attempting to drive the deer towards the edges where it can be killed. Depending whether you are a French farmer or not, you might be cheered to know that each year the hunters fail to meet their quota (set by the department) and the population of deer continues to increase.

I was probably more disturbed by this five years ago than I am now, and to be honest it no longer troubles me. But meanwhile bullfighting has been turning up in the news, and that bothers me a lot more.

In the South of France there are still several bullfights held each year, that attract large crowds. It sems that there is a growing movement, even among the French, to ban bullfighting – but it is an uphill struggle for the protesters, facing hundreds of years of tradition.

The anti-bullfighting movement recently released a television ‘advert’ showing the cruelty of bullfighting. This has now been banned from French television as unsuitable for children to watch. Many people have made the reasonable point that if it is unsuitable to be shown on televison, why are children allowed to attend real bullfights. I can see their logic.

I learned that the video was widely available on the internet, so I searched for it so that I could see what it was all about. I had the intention for the video to be at the top of this article, by way of an introduction. However having now watched a couple of bullfighting videos on the internet I concluded that they were not suitable for this blog either.

Now I’m not exactly Mr Macho and bullfighting is a very macho sport, so I already knew it was not my thing. But really I can’t even begin to see the appeal. The appeal for the crowd is pretty hard to fathom, but the appeal for the actual bullfighters themselves…can anyone even begin to explain to me why they do it?

Do women fall admiringly at their feet? Do they get paid a fortune for doing it? Is unemployment so bad that they couldn’t find a real job but could get a job as a bullfighter? I really do try and understand other people’s points of view but this one is beyond me, and I can’t think of a single reason why bullfighting in France should be allowed to continue. All suggestions and explanations are very welcome!