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September 14, 2011
What’s a Biarritz?
Dear Boys,
It's come to my attention that my name was mentioned during your recent visit to the Radnor Hunt Concours of fine automobiles.
As you all gazed upon a Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz the question came up "what's a biarritz?" and in my absence you were left to wander the wilderness of the main line in ignorance.
Let me help you with that question.
Biarritz is a town of a little over 27,000 conflicted souls in the south of France who don't know whether to call themselves French, Basque, or Spanish since it's 11 miles from the French border with Spain on the Atlantic coast, and Basques are unwilling Frenchmen.
Don't try to dig out the origin of the word from the French or Basque language.
It's Scandinavian. The Vikings discovered the place in the early 800's AD and went nuts over the topless babes on the beach. They named the place Bjarnihus, which means the house of Bjarni. Bjarni had the biggest broadax onboard, and to avoid having their blond noggens lopped off the guys let him put his name on the place.
Time went on, and the Basque and French babes wore the Vikings down and contaminated that pure northern blood. Soon the Bjarnihusen did what they pleased, and they decided Bjarnihus was a ridiculous word so they named the place Biarnitz.
After a few hundred years more of diluting the Viking thing the Biarnitzen decided Biarnitz was too hard to say after three or four bottles of Bordeaux and went with Biarritz, which is the sound you make after drinking three bottles of Bordeaux.
The weather there is great, and in 1854 the wife of Napoleon III (who called himself that due to a lack of imagination) built a monster palace there to escape Paris in the summer, which sucks.
.
The next thing you know the Brits - queen Victoria and prince Albert in a can - start showing up. They put the kibash on the topless routine, and everybody hated them for it.
Around the turn of the century the Americans discovered the place, including Charles Stewart Mott and William Durant, the co-founders of General Motors.
They too were knocked out by the displays on the beach, and when they were old men they tipped their hats to those memories in the design of the early '50s Cadillacs the bumpers of which were called Dagmars.
In 1926 Hemmingway mentions Biarritz in The Sun Also Rises, and after the war, Gary Cooper and Sinatra are hangin' and the name of the place becomes synonymous with "class" like a gold chain necklace.
Goombahs and Cadillacs go together like Martin and Lewis, so in 1956 the Detroit geniuses decided to give the convertible model of world's most audacious automobile - they wore out one steel mill for every 100 Biarritz's that lumbered off the assembly line - a classy name.
And to match your gold chain, the emblems were now gold....uh...gold color....
As the years rolled on your 7 grand bought 5000 lbs of class with twin four-barrels burning a gallon of 23-cent 97-octane Golden Esso Extra every 10 miles, unless you were piloting your 18-foot long Detroit iron 100 mph down a dark desert highway with the cool wind in your hair, in which case it would be less.
It was a great car to drive according to my octogenarian friend John Neary who navigated his dual-quad '57 coast to coast, and still dreams of his foot on the floor searching for an Esso sign.
He writes: "Forgot to mention making the memorable back and forth trip in my beloved '57 Eldorado Biarritz convertible mit der two four-barrels.... Would you believe I wound up turning that gorgeous old beauty-- push button everything, leathern seats, tonneau, sheepskin carpets, the works-- over in 1971 to two neighborhood kids for $125? They painted it sea green, with a broom...."
And that's why the Cadillac Eldorado convertible is biarritzy.
Are there any more questions?
rp
Posted by ronpaci at September 14, 2011 11:11 AM