ARLES, France--Every female on the planet, it would seem, dreams of this moment from the time she was a little girl (whether she admits it or not), when she will be touched by an angel dressed in red and summoned to the stage to dance Flamenco.
And that moment arrives at the end of a theme-park evening at El Patio de Camargue, on the outskirts of town. A cynic might call it Camargue-Land, but it's a very well organized event space (three rooms for groups from 50 to 500, a vast outdoor grill where they prepare giant paellas, an assortment of gypsy wagons, a fortune teller named Djamila, braziers to light the night sky, a bull ring where Camargue horses and tame bulls perform, optional trapeze artists, and, at the heart of the complex, a lively gypsy band fronted by a mild-mannereed gent named Chico, who co-founded the original Gipsy Kings with members of the musical Reyes family in the 1970s.
The story of the Moroccan-Algerian Jahloul ("Chico") Bouchikhi and his relationship to the original Gipsy Kings is convoluted; Chico lost the rights to the Gipsy King name, so the group that plays at El Patio is called "Chico and the Gypsies." Chico's personal website, chico.fr, could use a copy editor to clean up the inevitable mistranslations, but Chico himself is onsite most nights and watches carefully as his daughter (singer) and son (guitar viruoso) traverse their adolesence in the spotlight. (You want to say, "Tell them to smile more!")
A wide assortment of tapas and sangria are offered and consumed; the paella (excellent mussels) has come and gone, as have desserts. Now, the evening comes to a dramatic close. As the guitars strum and Spanish melodies fill the night, Karina del Oro, who's been writhng decoratively behind the singers, descends from the stage and begins anointing members of the audience. Thrilled and breathless, barely able to believe their good fortune, the chosen women let their shoulder bags fall, loosen their hair (and drop their inhibitions). They stretch toward for the ceiling with a practised twist of the wrist, as if changing a lightbulb, reaching as Gatsby did for the green light. It is a scene of redemption, of Goethe's Ewig-Weibliche, set to Andalusian music.
The dinner program at El Patio was part of a travel industry trade show hosted by the regional tourism authority of PACA, to whom we extend our deepest thanks.
El Patio de Camargue, 51 bis chemin Barriol - 13200 Arles, France
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