Do you know the Drac, the monster that haunts the waters of Beaucaire? The Drac has its own myth, and even a statue in the center of Beaucaire.
Not to be confused with the neighboring legend of the Tarasque of Tarascon, the Drac is the monster of Beaucaire. A dragon with sharp claws, a devious and talented magician, invisible to human eyes...
The myth of the Drac of Beaucaire
The story was told by Gervais de Tilbury in the early 13th century, then reworked by Frédéric Mitral in his Poème du Rhône. The Drac haunts the waters of the Rhône, where it lies in wait for and traps children and other passersby in order to devour them. It must be said that the monster is fond of human flesh. The monster does not hesitate to transform itself into a man to hunt even on the lands of Beaucaire, much to the despair of its inhabitants. It is all the more difficult to protect oneself from it since most of the time, they cannot even see it thanks to its invisibility.
"If, unfortunately, a man comes to walk alone on the bank, the Drac, who waits on the lookout, invisible, between two waters, lets a gold coin float on the surface. Seeing its reflections, the man enters the river to try to retrieve it. And there, crack! The Drac catches it, carries it off and eats it!"
The Drac and the Washerwoman..
While washing her clothes in the waters of the Rhône, the washerwoman sees a wooden cup (or her paddle, depending on the version) passing by and can't help but grab it. The Drac grabs her and takes her with him to the bottom of the river... where he spares her life. It turns out that the Drac has just had a son, and therefore needs a human to take care of the Dracounet!
For seven years, the washerwoman raised the young Drac. Under his father's instructions, she coated him every night with a special cream. Made from eel pâté (or human fat, depending on the version...), it made him invisible to human eyes. Wash your hands with this special water every night after application " the Drac orders her. One evening, however, she forgets, and goes to bed without cleaning the grease from her hands. She wakes up the next day rubbing her eyes, and realizes that she can now see the Drac, who is normally invisible.
Seven years after her kidnapping, the Drac returns the washerwoman to dry land. Pressed with questions, unrecognizable after so many years, she recounts what she saw in the waters of the Rhône. And while she was walking at the Beaucaire fair, she recognizes the Drac and goes to greet him. Big mistake! Mad with rage at having been seen, he gouges out the washerwoman's eyes and disappears without looking back.
The legend of the Drac according to Frederic Mistral
If the Drac is described as a monster in some stories, it is romanticized in those of Frederic Mistral.
In the version by the famous Provençal author, the emphasis is placed on the ambiguity of the DRAC, its particular relationship with the washerwoman, and the attraction of the Rhône. Through his poem " Poem of the Rhone In his 1897 novel, Frédéric Mistral portrays the Drac as poetic, romantic, and mysterious. There is, moreover, no mention of the tragic end reserved for the washerwoman who raised the Drac's son…
Frédéric Mistral describes the Drac as "a winged, amphibious monster who bore on the body of a reptile the shoulders and head of a handsome young man. He lived at the bottom of the river where he tried to lure, in order to devour, the unwary who were won over by the sweetness of his voice." And still in this same poem, he recounts a rather surprising love story…
She, intoxicated by the love potion, in this handsome lord who charms her, finds the Drac again, who under the waves, in the white trembling of the moon, has fascinated her so many times!
The Drac Festival
An emblematic figure in Beaucaire folklore, the Drac served as a true mascot for the town. It aimed to energize the town between the Ascension Day Fair and the Madeleine celebrationsThe first edition took place on July 14, 1950. Representations of the Drac in painting, in papier-mâché...
Over the years, the festival became more and more important with bullfighting events, the appearance of a ball with the election of Miss Drac, the symbolic burning of the monstrous figure... It continued until the end of the 90s before stopping... perhaps to return in a few years!
The Drac today
Iconic legend of Beaucaire, it is possible to find a representation of the Drac on the Place de la République, also known as "the Old Place" in Beaucaire.
It is at the fortress that his legend still lives on through theEscape Game “Mistral and the Legend of the Dragon”An outdoor adventure game to discover this Beaucairoise legend!
Players are led to follow the evidence left by Frederic Mistral to find the monster from the depths of the Rhône...
