The babies of Nathalie live in a cage and weight around 700 pounds. Portrait of a tamer who learned it all while practicing.

“I'm not a circus girl. When I was ten, my dream was to own tigers and to be able to work with them. My friends used to make fun of me because of that. My parents and my teachers were rather worried…” Today, Nathalie just made it happen. Since she met Gil, about five years ago, they just share their passion : they travel around France with four tigers and a leopard. Once again, the hazard of life just made things turn out nicely. “My mother wanted to put me in a circus school, but there was no way to learn taming“, says Nathalie. ”I then decided to become a hairdresser. Ten years later, I was just sick of living during working hours. I then became a barmaid in a dance club. That's where I met a guy in charge of a horse show. I just told him about my passion for the tigers. He told me how to get some and that he could teach me how to tame them. That's how it all started.”

Nathalie et Gil then adopted two male baby tigers. In the beginning, life wasn't easy. “We raised them in an apartment. We weren't rich and we used to travel with three huskies and two tigers in a… Ford fiesta ! During the hard times we had, we even had to eat at charity restaurants.” Anyone usually has to wait before being able to set up a deer show. The animals aren't tamable before they're one year old. Prior to that, they can't focus on something and are rather worried about playing. Then, it still takes six months to teach them their tricks correctly. Meanwhile, the males have been joined by two females and a leopard. “We can't really touch them, since we got them while they were already adults. They're just broken in, not tamed.”

Cold sweats

To find herself around deer isn't actually reassuring, especially when starting. But passion quickly took fear over. “The first time I entered the cage, I didn't have any adult deer experience. I had never seen any accident and I wasn't really aware of the danger. With the females, I had some fear, because I didn't raise them, but I wasn't that worried.” Still, Nathalie quickly learned the risks of the job: “I was bitten twice by a female while clearing the cage. It was just a rookie mistake. However, some day the leopard just jumped on me. He smelled a goose scent on my pants and attacked me.” It's after these moments that you really have to be brave if you want to keep living among deer. It's actually easier to say than to do… “I'm not going to the leopard cage anymore, I'm too scared. He just feels it and he knows it because he already took me over. After this accident, it took me a while before entering a cage again. The first time, I had cold sweats. I just felt like the tiger was actually waiting for the tiniest of my distractions to attack me. The next day, I was already feeling better.”

Tigers may be dangerous, but they're not dumb. “They're less dumb than horses, anyway, With deer, if you happen to stop performing for a month, it doesn't really matter: they'll remember their role in the show. They know the order of plays, and sometimes they just perform it before we actually ask them. The only problem occurs when you want to change something, like their position in the cage. Then, it's just a mess…”

The streets security

Nathalie and Gil perform in the streets, on their own. Oppositely to what one may think, it's the best way for them to have a stable social life. “There's nothing easier than to get hired by a circus in France. But you don't get a contract there, you're earning black money and if something happens, you don't have access to social security. You live as a day-to-day. Moreover, you travel a lot. It's the fixing, show, unfixing, road routine. We don't spend much time with the animals. We actually prefer to work outdoors and several days in a row in the same town.”

Rehearsals and the show are open to everyone. Gil uses to tell their story and then, as a gentleman, he lets Nathalie show the tigers. Then, they go through the public with a hat. Give us what you wish, Ladies and Gentlemen. Real street artists still exist…