From: "ROUY, Didier"

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998

My Dear American Pro-Napoleonic Friends

It happened something last Sunday that I must tell you. I was in Montereau, around 50 miles south of Paris-you know, the last victory of 1814, a bridge, a rear-guard of Austrians or whatever, a charge by Paj ol, almost a skirmish. Hum ... if I say that it was a skirmish to anyone who lives in Montereau, he will kill me. It is written in the program booklet "great victory". Anyway, the name of the event was the "Troisiemes Journees Napoleon." (We could translate it the "Napoleon Day '98".)

The program was an exposition of miniatures, a couple of conferences, a concert of Corsican songs, a flea market of weapons, military stuff, a ceremony near the Gendarmes Monument, the unveiling of the "hussards 's roundabout" (I am serious!), and the acme of the party, the parade "in uniforms" * Oh, I was about to forget the Emperor's jumbersale, all the week-end long, where you could find sau- sage, wooden shoes, candies, junky jewelry, and so on. You will really think that the French are just silly morons, well, some days you are not totally wrong, but I must be more complete and you will understand why I tell you that story.

The parade first: not bad, really not bad, between 300 and 400 soldiers, mostly Grenadiers de la Garde, very well-dressed (what a cost!), three huge military bands, 50 cavalrymen of various but beautiful uniforms, three regiments" of line troops, and almost 200 "Vieilles moustaches". Up to now, and for people like you who know what a military reenactment is, there is nothing surprising in this parade. I have seen the Waterloo 1995 re-enactment and I know what it is, but for me this is surprising, because along the main street of Montereau, there were 15,000 people watching them, greeting them, with a big deal of applause, and when you know that the French have the bad habit of despising their armyor whatever reminds them of war-you will ask: If there is so few pride of their army in this 15,000 people, what were they doing here?

In France, re-enactment is very poorly developed, and only around Napoleonic stuff. We never see re-enactment with World War One, despite the fact that we won this war, and facing History this is probably the victory we should be the most proud of. And we lost Napoleonic wars, they cost us one million people, no new lands, and 130 years of German hatred (I do not say anything of British hatred, it is 2000 years old ... ). For you Napoleon is a hero like Alexander the Great, Caesar, Washington. For almost all the French he is mainly a silly megalomaniac soldier-consumer who did nothing else than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. So, what is going on? Are the French so chaotic? Yes!

But this cannot explain why when I arrived in Montereau, I saw some "Bonnets d'Ours" on the bridge, I got nearer, and when I passed the bridge, and the Marche Consulaire started, I was almost 200 years in the past, and the drums really moved me. In a few seconds I understood why peaceful peasants could have changed their mind, and could have charged, killed, marched, for ten years. The French like everything that is beautiful, fancy, colorful, and unuseful... We are artists, and as any other people on earth, we like glory. Do not smile, you too! At the time you will read this message you would maybe have bombed Iraq... Therefore if someone, even a small Corsican, offers us a fancy, colorful and beautiful glory then let's go! It happened, and even if it is unlikely it can happen again.

Every gamer should be moved once with the drums of the Imperial marching band, I am sure you all know what I am talking about. I just wanted to tell you that everybody, kids, mothers, old people, have something in them that is able to awaken with the drums. This is my own experience, and I wanted to share it with other "vieilles moustaches".