"Let me show you how a cattle brand works. Oh, Jacques... could you come over here for a second?"
Posted on 05/09/2005 9:48:18 AM PDT by Parmenio
Cowboys, Indians - et les Français
It's hard to imagine the French embracing anything American, so why, wonders Abigail S Carroll, have they gone wild for le country?
(Filed: 07/05/2005)
My first contact with le country was accidental. While travelling last summer in Lorraine, I saw a banner reading "Marange-Texas Rodeo" and decided to investigate.
Rough ride: interest in the Wild West is strong in France
Two smiling Frenchmen dressed in 10-gallon hats, cowboy boots and spurs welcomed me to the event. I paid €2 (£1.42), but only because I had showed up in a Peugeot hire car. Anyone riding a Harley-Davidson got in free.
Inside the fairground, the United States and Texas flags flew proudly as French families disguised as cowboys or Native Americans waited in line for the "Apache Dinner", a fixed menu of chili con carne and corn on the cob topped off with a French twist, a delicate tarte aux fruits rouges.
As it turned out, the Marange-Rodeo was not a rodeo but rather a celebration of country music and culture. Sporting a cowboy hat and a red bandana around his neck, Yves Muller, the organiser of the annual event, explained that le country is a growing trend around Europe, having started in Germany because of the influence of American military bases there.
"When I started the event six years ago, I thought it would work for a year or two, but it has just kept on growing. Last year we counted 5,000 attendees," said Yves. That's a big crowd for a town such as Auboué, which has a population of only 5,454.
Muller views le country's popularity as a reaction to the times we live in. "French people are looking for ways to escape the stress of our modern, isolated lives and congregate, as a community. Like we used to in France, for example, after the grape-harvesting."
So why don't the French look to revive traditional French community events? "The costumes aren't as much fun," he said. "And even if le country is not technically our culture, we grew up watching Westerns and playing cowboys and Indians. America is our dream, too."
As an Alsatian band called Far West played authentic-sounding country music, line dancers in hats and boots from clubs with names like "Texas Club" and "Les Coyottes" showed off their well-practised moves for the approving crowd.
While the cowboys danced, I spoke to the other lot, the Indians, and soon discovered that the teepees I had spotted from the festival entrance were not exhibitions open for the public but the mobile homes of those followers of le country who opt for the Native American lifestyle.
Jean-Luc Heyd, a 45-year-old woodworker, spends most weekends in the summer living out of his custom-made teepee and following the weekly country and western festivals. "Why are you an Indian?" I asked. "Because they're the good guys," he replied.
After an Indian dance performance - called, naturally, "Dance with Wolves" after the Kevin Costner movie - a group of bare-chested young Frenchmen wearing wigs and warpaint set fire to a half-dozen rows of hay bales and galloped their horses though them while bellowing war-cries. The crowd hollered.
It is impossible to discuss le country in Lorraine without a mention of Joseph Ragnatella or his Rio Grande Ranch, which he built by hand in the sleepy town of Auboué, on a parcel of land loaned to him by Auboué's mayor. I was invited to go to Rio Grande after the festival.
Rio Grande Ranch, "country-club" to 130 members, looks like a set for a spaghetti western. There is a saloon, a barbershop (20 cents a cut), gallows and a corral with a few tired looking horses. While on site, members must sport full country apparel.
As soon as Ragnatella gets off work from his job on the French railways, he slips into his cowboy clothes and picks up his Winchester. "I'm not playing cowboy," he insists, "I am a cowboy."
Ragnatella's influence in the region is undeniable. Rio Grande is now a formal centre for line dancing, and the area's state schools rely on it. His pride and joy, however, is a 20-minute Western film he produced with the members of the ranch. "I help people dream," he told me.
All that was missing in my American-country weekend in Lorraine was the actual rodeo. But rodeos do exist in France, as I discovered from Vittorio Allegra, a 46-year-old French rodeo cowboy who has been riding bulls and broncos since his teens.
We met in a café at the Gare Montparnasse. He had come to Paris to provide commentary in French for the Las Vegas Wrangler National Championships to be aired on Canal+, the premier French cable channel. Without removing his cowboy hat, Allegra discussed his French Rodeo Company over an espresso.
With his business partner, Jean-Pierre Mugnier, Allegra promotes rodeos throughout France. They have 50 bulls and horses on their ranch outside Montpellier and a dozen cowboys in training. In an average year, the French Rodeo Company puts on 15 rodeos, the biggest being the Country Western Festival at Saint Agrève, Ardèche.
Allegra usually recruits a few American cowboys for the big shows. "This year at Saint Agrève," he said, "we're not just doing a rodeo show, we're hosting a real rodeo competition, with try-outs, entrance fees and a cash prize." He also plans to hold his first rodeo show in Paris this year.
While Allegra has made a concerted effort to bring country culture to France, others have done it quite accidentally. Muriel Balembois and her husband have been raising American bison in France since 1991, on the Randals Bison ranch in Lanuéjols, Languedoc-Roussillon. They are ranchers first and foremost, and never expected to find themselves in entertainment. But people kept stopping to look at their bison and the Balembois ceased to view their herd as just "livestock".
Today they offer much sought-after "team and cattle penning weekends", in addition to country music festivals, a restaurant, campgrounds and a few chambres d'hôte for visitors eager to experience life among the bison. They also take their bison on tour. At the Nîmes outdoor arena last December, 14,000 people braved the cold to watch a bison and roping show, A Christmas Tale in Bison Land.
A thriving industry has emerged around le country. A handful of periodicals with names such as Western Magazine, Country Music Attitude and Equiwest are available at news stands across France. There is even a country music radio station. Disneyland Paris has latched on to the trend with a country-music venue, Billy Bob's, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which runs twice a day in the Disney Village.
All of this means that there is a big demand for authentic clothing. Followers rely heavily on two Western apparel stores in Paris, Cowboy Dream and El Paso Booty, both on rue Saint Denis near the Pompidou Centre.
Dominique Boudré opened El Paso Booty 30 years ago, before le country became en vogue. Now she's selling 1,000 pairs of boots a year. "In the States, country styles change, but not here," she said. "We want only the best, classic cowboy gear."
Apparently, American tourists stock up in her store because they can't find the same authentic look back home - though rumours that George W. Bush has been spotted in there are probably unfounded.
Several years ago I witnessed a pretty passable performance of American country music in a village in Southwest France by a band from Ireland. Go figure.
My wifes uncle Jaques lives in Angers, he and his wife dress up cowboy and cowgirl and go square dancing once a week! My grandfather was a big time caller back in the 20's in Oklahoma, my guess he would not understand the caller in France "s'emparer de votre partenaire/grab your partner
"Let me show you how a cattle brand works. Oh, Jacques... could you come over here for a second?"
I guess the French aren't so bad after all.....
If it croaks.......it still a Frog........
"So why don't the French look to revive traditional French community events?"
Um..could it be that the Black Death, Inquistion and The Reign of Terror are just not what they used to be?
The Irish band playing American country music is not such a surprise; Celtic music is the primary ancestor of American country-western.
I once talked with an Irish tourist who had recently completed a car trip across the USA. Driving through the South, she had tuned into the various local radio stations and had been surprised by "Irish" sound of all the country music.
It must be a Village People thing!
"I met a german girl in england who was going to school in france, and we danced the mississippi at an alpha cappa dance..."
http://www.frogtown.org/jubilee.shtml
Movin' movin' movin', keep those froggies movin',
though they're disapprovin'
Raw-hide
Cheese and wine and leather, whips sing together,
ready to surrender,
Raw-hide
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.