I read on Decanter.com today that research has found the French to be more moderate drinkers than previously thought, and that historical figures have been inflated to the benefit of the increasingly powerful French anti-alcohol lobby.  You can imagine, I’m sure, the heat of the debates that take place between the anti-booze lobbyists and the French wine trade bodies…

I think it’s a fair argument.  The previous statistics have simply divided the amount of wine sold in a country by the number of inhabitants (presumably of drinking age, though that isn’t made clear) and doesn’t take into account wine bought that isn’t drunk (i.e. stuck away in cellars) and even includes wine bought in France by tourists.

Certainly in our experience of living in France we’ve found that the French drink nowhere near as much as the British.  The lack of a binge drinking culture has been well documented, but even beyond that they don’t seem to be as regular drinkers of even moderate amounts of wine.  Hell, we’ve even got a friend who – and now in her early 30s – claims that she’s never been drunk in her life.  She’s no teetotaller, just never drinks enough to get hammered.  How odd.

Still, as President Sarkozy lands on British shores today, it’s nice to see that some Frenchies can get stuck in when they want to.  A happy combination of topics which allows me to link to a lovely little video of Sarkozy turning up a bit late for a press conference at a G8 conference after a long and clearly bozze-fuelled lunch with Putin.  Smashing stuff.  I imagine he and Phil the Greek will be hitting a few of Windsor’s boozers tonight.

It also striked me that Carla Bruni must also own a fairly hefty pair of beer goggles…