Grandchild Fortuné Cante carried on the tradition and brought in new machines using gas pressure to shape the hats.
Each year in July there is a Festival of hats at Caussade to celebrate Pétronille Cantecor and the hats of those two adjoining towns.
Val says I can never see a straw hat without laughing. Our funniest family story was about my Dads straw hat, bought from Dunns at great expense by my mother. We were on a family holiday with my parents in Bruges and all the week Mum kept nagging us to be careful with Dads hat. Mind we did not sit on it in the car, watch where it was put, wear it correctly Dad... on and on. It became a joke. We then towards the end of the holiday walked along the banks of one of the canals. A stiff breeze whipped the straw hat of Dads head and off it floated into the canal. There was a stunned silence from us all as it gracefully floated down stream. None of us dare laugh at the time as poor Dad and Mums faces were pictures but we have rolled about laughing ever since, and it is now a family joke.
