One day at the beach, I was telling a young English-speaking lady how to order a carafe of water for when you want tap water (
un carafe d'eau, SVP), and she asked if I'd seen the water jousters the day before. And I was like WHAT?! So I used my French-sleuthing skills to determine that the
tournois de joutes is a semi-regular occurence in Sète, so I hadn't, in fact, missed much of anything. As part of the Fête de la Saint-Pierre, there would be even more water jousting tournaments than usual.
July seems to be a popular month for tournois de joutes
And that is how I spent a couple hours each day watching various water jousting tournaments. It seems to me that most men were into it for the manly grunt-yell they got to do when they stabbed their opponent's shield.
There's a lot that goes into these jousts. There's training schools, of course, but then on the day of there's the boats, the rowers for the boats, the captains, the musicians on each boat with their straw hats, all the equipment, spectator stands, etc. Such a fun thing to stumble upon and experience!
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