Stupendous luxury might be the best definition of Versailles. Others might argue for arrogant luxury, or redundant or superfluous luxury. All would have to agree it is the epitome of luxury – mind boggling abundance. We are 9 miles down the A13 from Paris and don’t come on Monday, because it is closed (as are many stores and other things in Paris and the rest of France). Originally a royal hunting lodge, it was built by and for Louis XIV the Sun King and may be the French meaning for the word heliocentric. Fountains, gardens, statuary and bronzes, marble and mirrors and gilded roofs are all commonplace. There are even two palaces (Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon) to get away from the palace (the Château), and of course it has it’s own Opera Hall. I have to mention André Le Nôtre, perhaps the greatest landscaper who ever lived, and the Hall of Mirrors (the Treaty of Versailles ending WWI was signed there). There are at least 998 other things I should mention.

Original appearance June 19, 2005, © 2005 / VERSAILLES / CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES, (CASTLE) / AVENUE DE PARIS, 78000 / 01 30 83 77 88 / CIP 124, OO 01 & 19, RD 19, YP 30/13-19

I’m tired of the old format. On March 28, 2005 A Cowboy in Paris was launched. First there were 100 ‘impressions,’ then there were 100 people, and interspersed there were 100 places. The second 100 places were picked and many people and topics too. Everything was graded and packaged in neat little chunks. In the meanwhile, for the most part, the original 300 ran again and again in numbing cycles. Much of our energy switched to The Magazine section of Tricolors, and even more to game development. Oh yes there were some things new in Cowboy – particularly the series on The European Union that ran for the first time last December, and just ran again above. And finally I got tired of the old format and decided to mostly stop the reruns. This is paragraph 570 and page 142 of A Cowboy In Paris – and it is a brand new beginning.

Original appearance March 21, 2007 / CIP2 570 / © 2007 / CIP

So what’s the big deal? What exactly will be different? For one thing it will be less structured and more sporadic. Originally the idea was to write an approximately five paragraph essay that, more or less, included one place and either 4 things or 4 people that this cowboy found interesting about France. Give or take, every third day there was supposed to be a new installment. Give or take there was. We even tied it all up in a pretty little package by grading each of the four as either good, better or best and one of the items as mixed or ugly. We never said it but the fifth item was always the great one, because virtually every place in France is great. The approach seemed to work because our readership (as measured by unique visitors) grew and grew. True, The Magazine languished (that was actually just the remnants of the original Tricolors launched in October 21, 2001), but with ‘Cowboys’ growth the numbers kept going up and up. Then we put our emphasis on the Magazine and it grew but Cowboy didn’t. So now we will be a little less structured and a lot more sporadic, but hopefully the energy will be back.

Original appearance March 21, 2007 / CIP2 571 / © 2007 / CIP

One of the most obvious differences will be the lack of pictures and the change of tone. There is a reason for this and it is sad. My sweetheart did the pictures and my sweetheart is sick – seriously ill with the big C. I am not going to dwell on it, we are just going to deal with it. She is strong, she is positive and she is a fighter. We will fight for as long as we have. We are optimistic. She is writing about her experience in French; her thoughts, her opinions, her feelings and her daily experiences. I am encouraging her. I think, at the very least, it will be therapeutic and cathartic for her. It wont be great literature – she is no Simone de Beauvoir or Irene Nemirovsky – but it will be real, it will help her, and there is at least the hope that it may help others. And she is a super woman. I, too, am no writer, but it may also be a release for me, so I might occasionally allude to that which is much more important than what I normally will be writing about. And the illustrations will suffer. Suffering could be spelt with a C.

Original appearance March 21, 2007 / CIP2 572 / © 2007 / SHE

The Magazine on Tricolors – its real name is She’ll, but we haven’t officially changed it yet – has been reflecting a little broader palate for some time now. Not only has it been leaning towards the feminine side of France, but it has often been reflective of the BBC and England too. This cowboy was, after all, originally born in London under the blitz. Additionally the US, UK and France all share the same tricolors. Now, with the series ‘An American Reflection on the European Union’ having run on ‘Cowboy;’ and with it’s imminent continuation, we will be broadening our focus even further. To be sure Paris is still home base; I love a French woman; and I like most things French – so Francophiles can relax – but there is beauty beyond it’s borders. The City of Light may be the diamond but Europe has many pearls. We will often be considering European topics from the unusual perspective of a Colorado Cowboy and a Yosemite Mountain Man.

Original appearance March 21, 2007 / CIP2 573 / © 2007 / EUS

Today we start a series that was originally written and produced for a Conference at the Université de Reims entitled An American Reflection on the European Union. It was organized by Professor Renaud de la Brosse and was presened by me. I, of course, am ‘An American Cowboy in Paris’ and the conference was presented on December 18, 2006. The First Conference was on the Governmental and Geographic Aspects. A Second Conference is now rescheduled for April or May and will cover the Military and Philosophical Aspects, that too will run on Tricolors. It starts below.

Original appearance December 18, 2006 / RC1 458 / © 2006 / CIP / YP 30/13-18 / EUS

Hi, my name is David Pitt and I am a Cowboy in Paris. I know how you hate that cowboy in Washington but I hope, after we are finished, you will at least understand cowboys a little better. I write ‘A Cowboy in Paris’ on my website Tricolors.com. – the site’s primary aim is to help Americans understand France and the French. On it I wrote:

Way way way east of Colorado lies Lutetia, a little island fortress in a river. Actually that is just what the Romans called it when it was more like Dodge City than New York City. Now it more closely resembles the latter in spirit and energy, but it is still further east. Spring forward a couple of thousand years and some of the architecture still retains a little Roman influence. Roman, Medieval, Classical, Contemporary and everything in between. It is the architecture and the art, the cuisine and the culture, the bakeries and the bistros, the rues, streets, avenues and boulevards that make Lutetia, now more commonly known as Paris, magnificent. And it is that beauty that I wish to portray from the viewpoint of a cowboy in Paris.

I went on and on in that vein and I concluded the introductory essay with:

Paris perceived is more a function of where you have been than where you are. You will see Paris through the filter of your life. If you are a positive person you will see the beauty all around you. If you are a negative person you will hear only the carping and the critics and soon you may even join in. Paris (and everywhere else) is a kaleidoscope of reflections of you.

Originally delivered as a lecture at a conference at the University of Reims, December 18th 2006 by this Cowboy In Paris. It is continued below.

Continued below / Original appearance December 18, 2006 / RC1 458 / © 2006 / CIP / YP 30/13-18 / EUS

I didn’t but I probably should have added: I suspect we could or perhaps should replace the word ‘Paris’ in the above paragraph with ‘France’ or ‘Europe’ or ‘the United States’. After all they are all part of the ‘everywhere else’.

It is that ‘everywhere else’ that I want to deal with today in ‘An American Reflection on the European Union.’ Actually it is two reflections. First it is the views of Jeremy Rifkin, an American Euro-visionary, and his 2004 book ‘The European Dream.’ Second, a couple of cowboys reflections on that reflection. And all these thoughts are divided into two chapters: the first, today, dealing with government and geography; the second, coming soon, concerning the military and philosophical aspects.

Before we get into all that, a word on words, and an apology for virtually every American’s linguistic inabilities. We are very bad at languages, and I am even worse. I apologize profusely for me and even a little bit for them. In addition there is the problem of ‘false friends’. You call them ‘faux amis’. Since I came to France about four years ago I have come to realize that many words spelled exactly the same don’t mean exactly the same in France and the United States. ‘Truculent’ and ‘liberal’ are a couple of examples and there are lots of others. Undoubtedly there are many that I am not even aware of. Lastly there is the problem of pronunciation, but there is no solution. When I speak English I speak American and, in the United States, it often appears, we don’t know the difference between an ‘I’ (pronounced ee) and an ‘E’ (pronounced eh), and certainly have no idea what a G ( pronounced jhee) is. Also be aware that our political infrastructures, political divisions, terms and meanings – yours and mine - are virtually completely unknown to each other. More on that later.

First an overview of Jeremy Rifkin’s “The European Dream”. We find on page 383, and I quote: “Europeans also want to be globally connected without losing their sense of cultural identity and locality.... Europeans work to live, rather than live to work…. Europeans put deep play, social capital, and social cohesion above career…. Europeans champion universal human rights, and the rights of nature, and are willing to subject themselves to codes of enforcement. They want to live in a world of peace and harmony, and, for the most part, they support a foreign policy and environmental policy to advance that end.” This all appears on page 383, and the book ends on page 385. It fairly well sums up the whole book (who knows, perhaps I should of read the end before I read the beginning). Still the book is quite well written, reasonably well documented – and, though a touch naïve, it is pleasantly idealistic. Jeremy Rifkin is a fellow at the Wharton School’s* Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania, and also the author of numerous books including “Beyond Beef,” “The End of Work,” and “The Hydrogen Economy.”

Originally delivered as a lecture at a conference at the University of Reims, December 18th 2006 by this Cowboy In Paris. It is continued below.

Continued below / Original appearance December 18, 2006 / RC1 459 / © 2006 / CIP / YP 30/13-18 / EUS

I promise we will be back to Mr. Rifkin shortly, but allow me a personal aside. A long time ago now – it was around 1974 or 1975 – I left the corporate world of Los Angeles and soon ended up in the small town of Oakhurst California. Perhaps it wasn’t the most elegant place in the world but it was right on the border of the gorgeous Yosemite National Park. I spent the next 25 extremely enjoyable years there owning and operating a combination Bookstore Restaurant. Early on in Oakhurst I was amused at the occasional signs I used to see around town that said “We don’t care how they do it in Los Angeles.” It seems that most of the people passing through Oakhurst were from Los Angeles and on their way to visit the exquisite Yosemite National Park. It seems they also often had a lot of advice on how to improve various aspects of the town, or the store, or the streets. I had long since forgotten those quaint little signs until I moved to Paris about four years ago.

I was then, and still am, awed by the magnificence of Paris, but eventually I began moving farther abroad. I visited tiny villages like Crestet and little harbors like Honfleur. I visited fair size towns like Amiens and Rouen and even a couple of the larger cities like Lyon. I found Aix les Bains to be an excellent French version of Oakhurst and Yosemite. Provence is and was superb. I have returned there often. I was charmed, and to be honest, I have never found one place in Paris, or the provinces, that wasn’t worth visiting.

Still there was an undercurrent that at first I couldn’t identify. I watched intently and quietly listened and slowly it dawned on me. Parisians didn’t much like anyone from Provence, or the provinces. North, South, East or West it didn’t seem to matter. Most of the provincials seemed to return the favor. They didn’t much care for Parisians, and they showed it; occasionally blatantly, but usually in just tiny little ways. All the signs told me I was back in Oakhurst in 1975 and those little signs were out. The world is the world, the world over.

I suspect that the pattern pervades. I knew that the Los Angeles/Oakhurst, New York City/Poughkeepsie, or the Washington DC/Denver pattern existed. Now I also know that the Paris/Provence, Paris/Marseille, and Paris/Aix les Bains model exists. These are all minor undercurrents – little problems that might, or might not, illustrate the human condition. Mostly we make little adjustments and no major problems surface. But, what if they are symptomatic?

From reading the news over the years it appears that the pattern repeats on a grander scale: Rome/Palermo or Rome/Naples; London/Cardiff, Belfast, or a host of other towns and villages throughout the UK; Madrid and the Basque Country, or similarly Warsaw/Gdansk. These capital versus country conflicts; the larger versus the smaller; the rural versus the urban; the sophisticated versus the simple – are ever present everywhere. Even in Africa, Asia, and Australia. Even in ancient Babylon and current Chechnya. All these conflicts and contentions* have deep implications for the European Union. The history of Yugoslavia, the history of the United States, indeed all of all history has relevance for the European Union.

A cowboy could think the above. If he were in Washington he might express it one way. If he were in Oakhurst or in Paris he might express it in quite another. Jeremy Rifkin is most definitely not a cowboy, but his parents were. His father was born in Denver, Colorado in 1908 and taught him “that success in life is the result of ninety-nine percent hard work and one percent talent.” His mother was born in El Paso, Texas in 1911 and taught him “in America, you can do anything you choose to do and be anyone you choose to be, if you want to do it or be it badly enough.” As he says: “My parents’ worldview was uncomplicated and very much the product of the frontier mentality.” Still, many Americans of many persuasions would still believe in such sentiments. A Wharton Fellow might turn out to be a little more idealistic, but then most Americans also respect idealism.

Originally delivered as a lecture at a conference at the University of Reims, December 18th 2006 by this Cowboy In Paris. It is continued below.

Continued below / Original appearance December 18, 2006 / RC1 460 / © 2006 / CIP / YP 30/13-18 / EUS

Let’s broaden the focus. If the local/national situation creates some tensions what of the nation/nation rivalries. Does Paris/Rome, Paris/Berlin, Paris/London present any problems? According to Jeremy Rifkin: “Europeans have shown that they can use the tools of dialogue, process, and consensus-building to create bridges among people and put an end to age-old rivalries. The EU’s twenty-five member nations are proof, on a large scale, of the wisdom of their approach” (page 309). Others might consider that an oversimplification. Somewhere between the rosy blue sky and the dark history may lie the truth.

Paris/Rome is a relatively mild case in point. Still, whether it is Silvio Berlusconi or Romano Prodi speaking does make a considerable difference to many French people. Likewise whether the subject is fashion or EADS can color the conversation. Bring up Mussolini or Fascism and the pot can boil over, though in that case, where you are in France, might affect the boiling point. For those with truly long memories we can go all the way back to Caesar and Vercingetorix. It is not a simple situation, or a simple history, then or now. Hope and hard work can bridge the gaps, and mutual benefit can seal the deal, but a simple piece of paper probably won’t do the trick. Only time will tell, and you need a whole lot of time – certainly decades and maybe centuries before you can be sure.

Paris/Berlin blows even hotter and colder. 1870, 1914 and 1939 represents one end of the scale. Konrad Adenauer paired with Charles de Gaulle and/or Gerhard Schroeder with Jacques Chirac represents the other. Whether talk or action is paramount is really crucial to this discussion. Some people say actions speak louder than words, some people hope diplomacy and consensus will rule. Are the Gaullists tottering, will they be gone in 2007? Does it matter? Does history or hope rule? On such questions and answers does the fate of the European Union depend. Again decades or centuries to any real answers, and a millennium to be certain.

Paris/London might be the key and it is probably the most complex rivalry within Europe. For 200 years before Napoleon, and 200 years after, the French loved to hate the English. It was reciprocal, and it was only with the advent of a new number 1 that the French switched their allegiance. Perfidious Albion? Still Britain appears to now rank # 2, and Prince Charles # 3 in this particular sweepstakes. That is a lot of history to overcome. It is possible, but it is difficult. And what of a future Paris/Warsaw or, who knows, Paris/Kiev complication? Or Berlin/Stockholm or….? Europe is rife with possibilities.

Originally delivered as a lecture at a conference at the University of Reims, December 18th 2006 by this Cowboy In Paris. It is continued below.

Continued below / Original appearance December 18, 2006 / RC1 461 / © 2006 / CIP / YP 30/13-18 / EUS