Hanging Out with Bull Riders and Barn Dancers in France

The West Country Festival is France’s biggest country music festival, with each edition gathering thousands of visitors from all over the worls eager to barn dance and watch equestrian shows while wearing cowboy hats. This year’s festival took place in the town of Châteaubriand at the heart of historic Brittany. Despite the obvious contrast of the theme to the place, revellers had been promised groups of bikers, simulations of Native-American villages, balloon trips and other culturally confusing activities.

As soon as we arrived in Châteaubriand, Michael and I found ourselves right in the middle of a crowd of cowboys and couples in adorable matching outfits. Checked shirts and light colours were predictably all the rage, while many people carried fold-out chairs they hastened to install around the dance floors.

Bull riding. The clowns are there to divert the animal in the event of a fall.

After wandering around for a while, we met two bull riders – Little Wolf and Chad. They had both travelled all the way from New Mexico and sat around sipping carmusettes – or “the cowboy’s aperitif”, as they called this mix of cognac, sauternes and Pineau des Charentes. They said they had spent the whole year training for the West Country Festival, and that’s exactly what they’ll spent the coming year doing too.

I think I’ll just stick to country dancing YouTube tutorials.

Check Michael Bunel’s work on his website.