Saint Mont Beret Toss, Meatpacking Style

In Saint-Mont, a small village in Gascony, France, men have two peculiar traits: they are all wine growers, and they are all born with a beret on top of their head.  Nobody knows exactly when beret-wearing started, but everybody agrees it was in Saint-Mont, to protect the farmers from both rain and shine.

Since the late 1500's, the beret has been much more than a fashion accessory in Gascony.  Besides protecting from the weather, and serving as an accent in a gesture of greeting, it is also used to chase away flies, spank misbehaving kids, show its owner's mood (depending on how low or at what angle it is perched on the head), and used as an accessory in a variety of traditional French games.   

  The Saint-Mont Beret Toss, a traditional contest which drew Gascon farmers to the village, disappeared during WWI, and has only recently been reinstated. This past Thursday, I felt extremely fortunate to be a part of, and photograph the first World Championship beret toss OUTSIDE of Saint-Mont, on behalf of D'Artagnan, "the leading purveyor of gourmet foods". The craziness went down right in the heart of NYC's Meat Packing District. An abundance of pâtés, foie gras, great wine, music and happy-go-lucky Frenchmen - all made for quite the celebration.