Roger Creager, Joe Ely, the Derailers, and Stoney LaRue helped bring a little Texas spirit to southern France last week.

The annual Country Rendez-Vous Festival in Craponne-sur-Arzon is among the "dozens of country music and Wild West festivals" gaining popularity in France, according to the International Herald Tribune:

Founded in 1988, the Craponne Country Rendez-Vous is the oldest French country festival. In its first year it drew just 250 spectators. This year marked the festival's 20th year, and the crowd was estimated at about 30,000 men, women and children. They included country music addicts, Wild West and "American lifestyle" enthusiasts, line dancers, bikers and families out for a day of open-air entertainment.
 
"For us, 'American' represents the westerns, Texas, the Indians, freedom," said Dominique, who lived near Dijon and was dressed in jeans, boots, a shirt emblazoned with American flags, a cowboy hat and carried a pistol strapped to her hips. Her husband, a retired railway worker, was outfitted in similar garb. "For decades we've only listened to country music," she added. "No French music, only country music and bluegrass."
 
Unlike most other festivals, Country Rendez-Vous organizers shun most add-ons, concentrating their resources on bringing over as many original American acts as they can, rather than staging side events.
 
"We are the only festival that does this - that keeps the music and only the music as the primary goal of the festival," said Georges Carrier, a professor of English in Lyon who has directed the Rendez-Vous for more than a decade and established close links with the music scenes in Nashville, Tennessee, and in Austin, Texas. "Who better than Americans can play their own music?"
 
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Other artists with Texas ties appearing in this year's lineup include the Lucky Tomblin Band, Trent Willmon, Redd Volkaert, Dallas Wayne, Tommy Alverson, and Jon Emery. Organizers have posted some photos from the event.

Steve Earle, Dale Watson, Guy Clark, Jack Ingram, Jason Boland, Wayne Hancock, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Randy Rogers, Kevin Fowler, Reckless Kelly, Billy Joe Shaver, South Austin Jug Band, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison, and Cory Morrow are among a large contingent of Texans who appeared in previous years.