In a move which has the French wine community up in arms, the Sarkozy government has upped the stakes in its war against alcohol abuse by banning all outside drinking.
The Department of Health will announce today that drinking any alcohol in any public place – including pavement cafes – will become illegal from 31 July 2009.
The measure – which the government says is necessary to 'combat a growing culture of excessive drinking' – comes hot on the heels of its announcement in February that even one drink could contribute to mouth and throat cancers.
From 31 July consumption of alcohol will only be allowed inside. All restaurants, bars and cafes with outside areas, even if their terraces are surrounded by full awnings, will come under the act.
'This is not only the next step in a sustained campaign against the wine community,' a spokesman for the group Vin et Societe said, 'it is an attack against the very heart of France.'
The French government has been battling with the wine community for several years – mainly over the draconian Evin Law which bans promotion of wine – and over health.
In 2004 it brought out a series of hard-hitting advertisements suggesting every drink had a permanent effect on the body, with wine lumped in with all other alcohols.
That prompted the Academie du Vin de France, whose members include some of the most distinguished names in French wine including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's Aubert de Villaine and Jean-Pierre Perrin of Domaine de Beaucastel, to call a debate to ask, 'Is France losing its wine culture?'
A spokesman for the Academie, responding to this latest move, said, 'The answer to that question now is, our wine culture is in its death throes. We are entering the dark ages once more.'
Steven Spurrier, Decanter's consultant editor, said, 'At this rate, the next thing this government will ban is the wearing of lipstick and tights.'
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I sincerely hope you are taking us all for an April Fool!!
Can you imagine sitting on a street café terrace somewhere in France without a cool glass of Chablis (or whatever makes your tongue hum) in your hand?
Sally Webster, Brussels, Belgium
Haha Great story. The problem is not banishment of outside drinking. The real one is: if financial crisis continues at that pace, no one in France would be able to pay any drink on terrace café in a near future. We need to laugh
Damien D'Ovidio, Tokyo, Japan
I presume (and can only hope) that your story was a poisson d'avril? Surely the French are not so inebriated with health correctness as to risk destroying their tourist trade!
Nicholas Coulson
Shall I cancel my summer holiday now?
Craig Mullard
It must be "poisson d'avril". How on earth would they police such a law? Imagine all the french policemen going around all the fields in France to make sure no one is drinking wine with their picnic! Well done Decanter! Great April fools.
Amanda's Wines, Valaire, France
Almost had me - but the headline was just a tad too close to the date. Fabulous! Though it did sound hauntingly like some US states. Thanks from an Expat.
Monika Krupski, Hamburg, Germany
This is the worst thing I have ever heard. This is so sad. Does this mean that a terrace restaurant can not serve a glass of wine? This is an awful law that will deeply change the culture of France. There is nothing as delicious and southing as having a beautiful meal with nice glass of wine al fresco in summer. This is a ridiculous outburst from a complexed tea-totaler.
Nadège Suné
Is this an April Fool? I hope it is!?!?!?!
Suzanne Fitzgerald, Neffies, France
The joy have being able to sip a glass of chilled wine or a chilled beer outside on a warm evening in the summer is one of life's pleasures that no government, no thought police, no jumped up self-appointed nanny state authority should ever be allowed to control.
I have said this in these pages before, that we have got the government that we deserve, because we have not voiced our opinions in a forceful enough way in the past. What America does today the UK does tomorrow; what France does this year the UK will undoubtedly follow sooner or later. Will their control of exterior drinking make a difference to the culture of "binge drinking"? Of course it won't because pavement cafes and bars are not the usual haunts of those who drink to excess, and even if it were why should the rest of us lose one of life's great pleasures?
We really have to rise up against this tide of oppression of the common man. Please form an orderly queue behind me.
Peter Bowyer, Wiltshire, UK
This is an April fool!
Pascal
Excellent Decanter, you had me for a moment. Very good!
Carol Forrest
I can accept most Government edicts with typical British sang-froid, but please, please we MUST NOT allow the French Government to ban Steven Spurrier from wearing lipstick and tights..........
Michel Crosse De Resser
Nice April fool – or Poisson d'Avril perhaps…
Georgina Caldwell, London, UK
Is the date relevant? It might damage the tourist trade just a touch!
Hugh Sturges
Your article French government bans outside drinking left me puzzled. Do English people share the tradition of jokes for the 1st of April? I do hope so. I don't dare imagine if this was not the case.
Sidonie Séron, Château Saint-Jean d'Aumières, France
I can only assume this is a “super poisson d'avril”!
Sharon, Paris, France
Yes it's April Fools Day – is this a joke or has the French government gone stark raving bonkers. Whole town centres with restaurants with outside tables and people eating and drinking water. Insane – we must beware, the new puritans are on the march. Presumably Sarco and his merry band of lunatics think that we will all flock to France to sip Evian whilst eating outside – not really. There's a recession duh....does he want to kill his dining/drinking/tourism industry? The lunatics have certainly taken over this particular asylum. What next will the maniacs do?
Andy Whiteman, Devon, UK
Always a good joke from Decanter on this 1rst of April. Fortunately english still have a good humor and hopefully the french government still have a little of intelligence to not ban one of the last pleasure left in this country, the little rosé at the terrasse during a hot summer. More than ban alcool, it would be a part of french culture promise to death.
Have a nice 1st of April,
Cédric Grelin, São Paulo, Brazil
No more chilled Roses with a picnic on a hot summer day? Are we to witness spots of tents all over the parks and the countryside of France as families and gatherings consume their alcoholic beverages in fear? Assuming that there will be fines (rather than arrests) for outside drinking, I could only hope that the French will learn to live with Sarkozy's new concept of 'corkage charge', albeit its omnipresence.
Ji-Woon Kim, Seoul, South Korea
What gives. As a wine lover and tourist I will be very upset if I can not have a glass of wine with my meal in a Paris restaurant patio. Does the French government not realize that this stupid law will affect tourism in their beautiful country. Wine is an agricultural product not the demon drink and is a common accompaniment to a fine meal. I will travel to Italy instead. Do the French restaurants have enough room for indoor only wine consumption or are all the tea-totalers banned from inside and have to sit outside in the beautiful weather. Not fair. When is this government going to be overthrown and replaced with reasonable people.
Ivan F, Canada
OK you got me. What a wonderful April Fool's day story which fits perfectly with what has been happening in France. I am so happy this is a joke as I really love Paris.
Ivan F, Canada
Oh, that explains it.
This morning some old friends of mine - Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus - and I sat down at Les Deux Magots.
Ernie ordered a goatskin of Spanish red, and the garçon said, 'Monsieur, we are no longer allowed to serve wine. It is the law. May I get you a buttermilk?'
Ernie asked, 'Where is the buttermilk from?'
'Brittany,' the garçon replied.
'Is it AOC buttermilk?'
'Oui.'
'I do not drink AOC buttermilk,' Ernie said. 'AOC is for sissies. Avez-vous any Vins de Pays buttermilk - the real thing - from the Jura?'
'We do not serve Vins de Pay buttermilk,' the garçon said. 'Monsieur Park-air does not like it.'
'What does Monsieur Park-air have against buttermilk?' Ernie asked.
'The milk is from a goat, and Monsieur Park-air likes only cows. Michel Rolland also favors cows.'
'Well, I like goats and goatskins,' Ernie said. 'so give me a café noir. I feel wounded'
'Under Sarkozy, it has reached a point,' Sartre said, 'that Existentialism is not worth living for.'
'You are right,' Camus said to Ernie. 'This is a rotten way to be wounded,'
Howard G Goldberg, New York City, USA
Ah, you got me! So busy I didn't even see what day it was... An excellent job, well done!
Peter Bowyer
Haw Haw Haw!!! Very funny.
Lewis C Taishoff
With the way the French government has treated wineries, this story was completely believable. Sadly, the story will probably only give the Sarkozy government ideas.
Aaron Mandel
The best one for a long time - but on a serious note isn't it sad that we even had to stop and think for a single moment about whether the French Government might be this mad, bad and dangerous to their own? Nobody would even have thought this might be an effective April Fool a few years ago but coming on the heels of the recent cancer scare, threatened restrictions on tastings and the limitations on the use of the Web, I must admit I did pause for thought before eventually putting it in the same league as the BBC's Spaghetti Bushes as a very good piece of April fish.
Tim Hartley
This would be good news for us in B.C.! Finally the British Columbia Liquor Control Board has moved to France. For us it would not be a joke but great news.
Mike Bullock. Victoria. Canada
I am in full favour of the French government banning drinking outside. Like the other year they banned cyclists from riding their bikes with strings of onions around their necks and wearing berets.
Pamela, Manchester, UK
You almost had me.....then I remember the date.....If this is True! We should send letters, emails, etc. to ALL Government Officials....
Nice one Decanter. Pull the other leg!
Idango Adoki, Eastbourne, UK
One scary thing though is that the way things are going SS (since Sarko), such poissons d'avril could become poisson pourrit…
Sally Webster, Brussels, Belgium
Happy April Fools Day! Sadly, it is not so far from becoming true in the future. In any case, I will be visiting France in the beginning of July, so the “new measure” will not apply, anyway!
Yiannis Papadakis, Athens, Greece
What's next, the German Government telling it's people they can't drink beer on Oktoberfest… Nice April Fools Joke!
Christopher Meyer, CA, USA
Quite right, say I ! And at last, a sensible measure to protect us law-abiding, decent citizens from the salacious behavior of worryingly growing minority who seem hell-bent on spoiling the enjoyment of the majority. Why, only last week I was quietly enjoying my café au lait on a sunny terrace in Beaune, when a couple sat down at the table next to me. He immediately launched into ordering a glass of Volnay, whilst she intrusively requested a Meursault Genevrieres, and even had the audacity to specify that she would prefer the 2005 vintage ! Quite despicable behavior from a pair who obviously had no respect for the other customers quietly minding their own business, reading our copies of Le Figaro. What's more, before long they were joined by another couple and they all proceeded to kiss each other on the cheeks. Twice ! Yet another blatant case of alcohol-induced promiscuity, no doubt. The sooner we ban this disgraceful conduct and lock-up the offenders for a night in the police cells with Evian and a baguette, the better for society as a whole. Bravo, Sarko ! We applaud your initiative !
Chris McIndoe, Beaune, France
"Let them drink water" ?? The last French rulers with a similar thought got a real headache out of it !!! If your story were true Sarko would already be in the Bastille awaiting the chop !!
Bernie Dirikis, Melbourne, Australia
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I sincerely hope you are taking us all for an April Fool!!
