Faithful followers of this blog know about the tension between Béarnais and Basques about the origin of the beret.
As the story goes, the beret "became Basque" due to a false assumption by Napoleon III. Visiting his summer palace in Biarritz (in the French Basque Country) in 1854, he saw so many people wearing a black beret, that he simply assumed it was a 'Basque thing'.
Who'd dare to disagree with an emperor - the name stuck.
The real origin of the béret lies in the Béarn - the province bordering the Basque Country and the Pyrenees. Many Béarnais find it hard to stomach that "their" béret is called Basque, but so far, the fight was fought in newspapers, magazines, on TV, in cartoons and occasionally in bars.
With the rise of regional nationalism everywhere, the Béarn proved not to be immune and two years ago an official petition was made to the Government of the Republic.
I doubt anyone expected a positive outcome for the Béarnais, but in times of Trump, Brexit and Orban - what can really surprise us these days?
The Minister for Regional development, in his wisdom has now decided that it is illegal to add the word 'Basque' to any French made beret, ending a long tradition of Béarn made berets carrying labels like 'Vrai Basque', 'Super Basque', etc.
It means the forced end of Laulhère's Basque Authentique models...
It will probably take at least a generation to ban the word 'Basque" completely, in connection to the beret.
Of course, the berets made by Boinas Elósegui are truly Basque - coming from the Spanish Basque town of Tolosa.
French governments tend to introduce quite a lot of rules and reguglations.... Which French people tend to ignore as much as possible. There was a few years ago some sort of ruling that Landaise bagpipes had now to be called "Gascon" bagpipes, or Aquitaine bagpipes or some such, despite the fact that everybody has always called them Landaise bagpipes. I wonder who decided to create these government departments in France that thinks all this nonsense up!
ReplyDeleteIt might have something to do with the time of year, 1st of April...
DeleteAargh! You got me! ��
ReplyDelete