Paul Ricard’s happiness was to make people happy. The Domaine de Méjanes has always been, thanks to that philosophy, a scene for the people visiting to develop their passion and talent.
Amongst the talented figures is Charles Fidani.
From 1946 and for 25 years, he is a torero, a bullfighter on foot. He then followed a splendid career as a raseteur, the main participant in a course camarguaise, and then became a rejoneador. A bullfighter that mounts a horse and uses a spiky javelin.
He is the first one in France to end his fights on foot, like the famous Spanish rejoneador Cañero. He even practiced bullfight all the way to Switzerland, near Geneva, in 1964.
At the beginning of the 50s, Paul Ricard hands him the management of the manade de Méjanes. For the cattle-rearing, he goes to Portugal with Marius Lescot and buys young cows and bulls from Emilio Infante de Cámara.
This brave and tenacious man loyal to Méjanes, officially opens the arènes de Méjanes on the 3rd of July 1955.
It is in those same arenas that he is three times the winner of the Réjon d’Or. Once in 1961, then 1962, and in 1967.
Charles Fidani was also an innovative man and could be considered an excellent show director. He imagined garlands and flags for the réjons and rounded javelin where doves could fly away from.
A great man that deeply influenced his era and Méjanes.
He passed away at the age of 95. A few months before, the Méjanes’s audience acclaimed him for the last time as he went for his last ride of honor on a horse-drawn carriage for the opening of the Rejon d’Or.
