Nîmes: Thirty years after his death, they pay tribute to Nimeño II<

Sylvette Fayet, elected: "And how is the mayor of Collias?" he asked me

"I had the chance to see him bullfighting in the Barcelona bullring in 1985, the year of his alternative. He had intervened to allow me, on the morning of the race, to attend the sorteo. Can you imagine a young woman attending such a ceremony in the Spain of that time?

Before the bullfight, I had met Christian in light suits at his hotel, preparing to join the arenas. “How is the mayor of Collias?” he asked me. The mayor in question was my father, to whom he liked to go sometimes with his brother Alain.

At the time when he should have been in full concentration because he was going to risk his life a few moments later, he had taken the time to ask me this question. It is a moment which, for me, symbolizes the man steeped in humanity that he was. He had a smile that was overwhelming. He was a great artist, sensitive, generous, of great strength and great fragility at the same time. When I talk about it, I am filled with emotion."

Simon Casas, arena manager: "The revolving door of the Imperator Hotel"

"I took the alternative on May 16, 1975 in Nîmes and I retired from bullfighting the same evening. I entered the main stage to come out immediately. That same day, at night, Nimeño II began in a novillada stitched in a cartel with Espla. An anecdote symbolizes everything. I was at the Imperator where there was a revolving entrance door.

As I was returning to the hotel in the evening, Christian came out at the same time in a costume of lights to go to the bullring. He hadn't triumphed yet but I knew he would. I had the intuition and I thought: “In this revolving door, it is time and destiny that pass”.

He was the first French matador to enjoy public recognition for his talent and courage. The decade before, we were a generation, of which I was leader with his brother Alain, which was called the movement of French bullfighters. We were kids who had a passion for bullfighting but we were told that to be a bullfighter you needed Spanish blood and no one programmed us."

"It was a revolutionary movement because we were the heirs of a passion, a vocation and we had no place. Nimeño II was the first and he has his statue in front of the arenas of Nîmes. Since then we have had great breeders, bullfighters and impresarios because the force of passion, no one can stop it."

polishing with very fine diamond and polishing paste :This video illustrates how to polish a tooth color... http://t.co/K5OmSZB2O4

— dentilizer.dent Fri Mar 15 22:12:26 +0000 2013

Denis Loré, former matador: "He had agreed to be my alternative sponsor"

"Before entering the French bullfighting centre, I visited the arenas of Caissargues. That's where I met Christian but also all the other French bullfighters. I went there on the tip of the feet and I watched them for at least a year. He was still THE French bullfighter and I could approach him. Sometimes, when we were training and he hadn't arrived yet, we sometimes discussed between us. But as soon as we saw him get out of his car, we all took capes and muletas."

"With him, I was able to train. He opened the doors to me as tentaderos with André and Tardieu. He had agreed to be my alternative sponsor (taken in June 1990, editor's note). I remember very well when I asked him to be. It was in the arenas of Caissargues. He had accepted immediately. We had given each other an abrazo. It was finally Emilio Muñoz who was my godfather of alternative, but Nimeño was on my mind that day."

Pascal Castel, aficionado: "No vuelta, no cake"

"There were a few friends of his who attended the bullfights in the front row, to the left of the toril gate in the arenas of Nîmes. And when Christian did a vuelta, we used to pass him a bottle of champagne or a simple glass with the help of a fishing rod. For a bullfight, we had wanted to celebrate the anniversary of his alternative. We had prepared a piece of cake in a cooler. But that day, Christian didn't do a Vuelta and his cake melted."

Christian Cartoux, aficionado: "He came to talk about Mexico on my show"

"On Canal 30, which was a radio whose studios were opposite the Daudet high school, I hosted Brindis, a bullfighting show. One day, Christian responded to my invitation. We had mainly talked about Mexico, where he was going. long in the winter since nothing was happening at our place. The program had lasted more than an hour and I kept the recording. He had said that each time he went to Mexico City, he stayed in a neighborhood which he knew almost everyone. And then one year, in 1985, this district was wiped off the map after the terrible earthquake that killed thousands. To help the victims, he organized a festival where he had shared the poster with the raseteur Christian Chomel. He had brought together the aficionados of the two bullfights. Above all, he had collected that day a sum much greater than that which Europe had given to Mexico.

El Rafi, matador: "His statue caught my attention"

"As a kid, his statue caught my attention. I didn't have the chance to know him, but the DVD “Le roman de la tauromachie française” was my bible. For all French bullfighters, he is our patriarch , the one who showed the way and our source of inspiration. They tried to compare me to him. It flatters me a lot but it bothers me, because I haven't even done a tenth of what he has achieved. It's also partly because of that that I stopped putting up the banderillas. I want to be judged for what I do first and foremost. And if I manage to do half of my career in my career of what he has done, then it will be good."

Nicole Lutchmaya, former bullfighter: "A photo of him"

"At home, every day, I pass a photo of him. He is with Chinito, his traveling companion. It was probably during their first capea in the arenas of Caissargues. They are so small. I had then heard people say that these two would eat cheese crusts for a long time. I told them that they would make a career."

"Once in Beaucaire, during a capea, I went out to measure myself against a sturdy animal. He had not gone out. With his brother, Frédéric Pascal, Simon Casas, we were in the dream, in the illusion. We opened the way. Afterwards, things were reversed and it was I who no longer wanted to put myself in front of the bulls. He wrote to me every year to present his wishes to me.

Morgane Dumas, aficionada: "Ado, my blog was called Nimeña"

"I was born in February 1991. Nimeño, I have only seen it on video. I went to the bullring at a very young age, with my paternal grandfather who passed on his aficion to me. When I When I was old enough to understand the intricacies of bullfighting, I read "Cover it with light" by Alain Montcouquiol, Christian's brother. It's one of my favorite books. As a teenager, at a where we made blogs, I created one to talk about traditions.

I called it the Nimeña. When I was in history college in Nîmes, I participated in the writing of a book, with David Matais, my contemporary history teacher in which I told the story of the statue of Nimeño necessarily . It all comes back to him. The proof, my grandfather, who died in 2005, is buried in the St-Baudile cemetery very close to where Christian rests."

Jean-Paul Fournier, mayor: "At the palco, I refused him an ear"

"In 1985, on May 25 precisely, I was the president of a bullfight where he was at the paseo with Niño de la Capea and Espartaco. At that time, I was very often at the palco. I had the reputation of being rather uncompromising. He had made a very good faena but he had been less good at the kill. So I had felt that he did not deserve the ear. The public had insisted that I give it to him but, despite a lot of pressure, I held on and didn't take out the handkerchief."

"I had suffered a big bronca and a few empty water bottles had also been thrown from the bleachers onto the palco. The next day, Midi Libre had also headlined an article “It's raining on the palco” with a photo where you could see the bottles very well. I had to leave the arena surrounded by two municipal police officers to face the disgruntled people. There was really a lot of anger. Others had congratulated me for having held good. Afterwards, I regretted a bit but I don't think Nimeño was angry with me."

Christian Chalvet, aficionado: "We called him out in front of the school"

"When I was at Lycée Daudet, we saw him, returning from his training which he was then doing at the Marcel-Rouvière stadium, park on boulevard Victor-Hugo and jump like a joker over the barriers that were installed on the sidewalks to go to the Chaix bank which was just opposite. He was most often in shorts and a T-shirt. For me, he was a living God."

"What impressed me was the scar he had on the inside of his thigh, the result of the cornada he had suffered in Barcelona two days after his alternative. first name or simply Nimeño so that he gives us an autograph on a simple sheet of paper or on our notebook. Mine, I often had them signed."

Frédéric Pastor, elected official, bullfighting assistant: "I bought him a light suit"

"In 1981, I was doing a bit of bullfighting and I was looking for a light suit. I went to see Christian in the arenas of Caissargues. He offered to drop by his house in the evening to offer me a costume that he had worn in Madrid but that he no longer wore."

"For me, it was something unrealizable. Inside the Chaquetilla, there was a pair of media (stockings, editor's note) and a muleta that he offered me. of light, I never wore it. I sold it to Robert Pilès when he returned in 1985. But the rest, I treasured it."