Driving in France After Meals

[cabrales]

How do members address the problem of having taken in wine during a meal if there is a need (for one diner at least) to drive thereafter?  I either travel on my own, or have traveling companions who are not eager to forego wine.  :confused:

[lizziee]

Cabrales,

We almost always stay at the place where we are having dinner. As you know, the majority of the two and three stars have accommodations.

[cabrales]

lizziee -- How would lunches be addressed? Would one diner refrain from drinking meaningfully?

I have, from time to time, utilized trains or, in very limited circumstances, taxis (with resulting higher cost).  

[Steve Plotnicki]

This issue has hurt business for a number of restaurants in France. Especially since they lowered the acceptable blood alcohol level in recent years. I know specifically from people in the trade that it has hurt Jacques Chibois for being so far from the coast and forcing people to drive back to the coast after dinner. I know he was trying to open a hotel on his property but I'm not sure that has happened yet. As for me, I try and stay where I'm dining. And if I'm not and I know I am going to be drinking a reasonable quanitity of wine I take a taxi.

But if you have to drive, being stopped by local police is less of a problem if you are visiting a region like the Cote d'Azur and stay on the coast. But I have found that there are numerous checkpoints set up by the local police in the heart of Provence. In fact one time we were stopped outside of St. Remy for such a long period of time that we missed our reservation at a restaurant in town. They made the driver of our car get out and walk a straight line and gave him all types of problems because he wasn't carrying his passport with him. I thought they were going to arrest him but his wife who speaks French very well got a little huffy with the cops and they used their better judgement. And this was at 8:30 in the evening with no probable cause. They stopped every car on the road.

[lizziee]

Cabrales,

At lunch we are very careful. Also, we will usually pick a lunch spot where we can wander around for a hour or so. The walk helps us work off lunch so we have an appetite for dinner. If all else fails, we will resort to a taxi.

Steve,

We had a similar experience in Joigny. The police had set up road blocks and stopped all cars, testing every driver for sobriety. Thank goodness this was before lunch for us.

[cabrales]

Steve P & lizziee -- Did the French police use a device for arguably more precisely measuring alcohol levels, or just ask for physical and/or mental task performance?  On the latter, members with decent tolerance would have more of a chance after meals.  

[jaybee]

Big problem.  Mostly we try to sleep where we are eating dinner.  I recall a lunch in Maisons Laffite where I was the least drunk, even after waiting two hours lying on the lawn in front of the restaurant.  It was a harrowing (and stupid) drive back to Versailles.  We vowed never to do that again.  So one of us volunteers to go easy on the wine. And we alternate.

[eugenezuckoff]

Several years ago, we were driving back to our hotel after dining at Au Plaisir Gourmand in Chinon. Naturally, we hadhad a glass of champagne to start and split a bottle of wine. I also had a cognac with coffee before taking the wheel.

[eugenezuckoff]

(As I was saying before my computer hiccupped). ABout half a mile from the restuarant, we rounded a corner to be confronted by a sobriety checkpoint. I assumed that it signalled the end of my freedom (or, at least , liquidity).

     Au contraire, I passed. Apparently their idea of tipsy and ours is not the same.

[cabrales]

I wonder if members who drive following a meal might adopt the arguably limited strategy of "front-loading" their wine consumption during a meal (e.g., taking aperatifs and several glasses early on).  :confused:

[FriedaL]

First off, my post is not to encourage drinking and driving. Au contraire. The best way to enjoy a meal with wine is to stay in the area or have someone be the designated driver. Also, avoid French rural roads during Sunday afternoons!

In France, driving a car with non-French plates has its advantages. At general check points, the gendarmes will let the foreign cars pass; the paper work is too complicated for them. I once drove back from the jazz festival in Ramatuelle (where I had a glass of champagne during the intermission), got lost on the way back (nothing to do with the champagne, it's just a tricky road) and found myself in St-Tropez with a sobriety check. Each car was stopped, except mine, still with Dutch plates and a non-tipsy driver..

When it concerns simple trespasses, such as not wearing seat-belts, everyone is stopped. Then you have to pay on the spot. No liquid funds? Leave your car there and find an ATM that will give you the necessary euros (60 per person, I believe, but with the euro inflation?).

Non-French plates also help with parking tickets... Alas, my new car has regular French plates, and I need to be careful as the next French person. With reason.

Frieda

[John Whiting]

A few years ago a good friend came to visit my wife and me at a salubrious bed and breakfast farm in the Loire, run by an English couple. He had no car and so we picked him up at the train station in Angers a dozen miles away. It was a hot afternoon and so we stopped for a kir before returning.

Back at the farm we broke open a bottle of ice-cold muscadet, and then another. The afternoon passed pleasantly and Frank asked our hostess if she could set another place for dinner. No problem. Delicious roast chicken appeared, together with more crisp musadet. Frank checked his railway timetable and determined that the last train back to Paris was at 9:20. At nine we piled into the car again, I located the ignition with some difficulty and we drove merrily away.

With minutes to spare we arrived at the station. No train, no waiting passengers. Frank consulted his timetable again and determined that the train we had come to catch didn’t run on a Sunday. Today was Sunday. Oh well, Madame had another room available. Back into the car, back to the farm.

The last leg of our journey was through a tiny village with a single narrow street. A road block was set up and a couple of cars were waiting in line while the driver at the head of the queue was blowing into a little plastic bag. A quick calculation told me that I alone had accounted for at least two bottles of muscadet. Mary had refused to drive in France. There, I thought, goes the rest of our holiday.

The moment of truth arrived. I blew boldly into the bag and waited for the earth to open up and swallow me. The officer held out the colored bag for me to see. “You are on the line,” he said in perfect English. “Be very careful.”

On the line? What line? The Maginot Line? The line of least resistance? Carefully I let out the clutch and we continued back to the farm, where we celebrated with another cold bottle.

[Beachfan]

Sounds like they use a blood alchohol content of .20 as the "line"

[John Whiting]

Of course this was back before the tightening of the noose. This was the country which defined an alcoholic as someone who consumed an average of three litres of wine per day.

[Pan]

My only comment is to remind people of how many lives are taken by drunk driving. Do whatever you have to do to avoid that, including simply not drinking wine with the meal. If others won't be the designated driver, you have to take that role. Or don't drive. And know yourself so you can know how you tolerate alcohol - not based only on your subjective opinion but also on the opinion of others who know you well and have been able to judge your reactions when you had had a glass or two and they hadn't. When in doubt, please take care of yourself and the other people on the road (and nearby places) and be conservative. I wouldn't want to hear that any of you were involved in any fatal or otherwise severe accidents.

[John Whiting]

One of the biggest factors in the dangers of drunken driving is, alas, unmeasurable, uncorrectable and unresponsive to legislation. The most dangerous drunk drivers are those who become overconfident and agressive; there is much less threat, drunk or sober, from those who are happy and relaxed. It comes down to whether one's instinct is to reach for the accellerator or the brake. If drivers drove cooperatively rather than competitively, highway fatalities would virtually disappear.

It's interesting that the highest accident rates in all countries are among males under about 25.

[cabrales]

I have noted some roads in the French countryside do not have lampposts, making them difficult to navigate at night even before the effects of alcohol are taken into account.  :confused:

[FriedaL]

Most French roads indeed do not have lampposts, none on the Routes Nationales or Departmental routes. The rural roads can be a challenge, certainly in the dark. Even during the day they can be startling for overseas visitors. So often I hear from the rest of the car: please, Frieda, tell me this is a one-way road...

Edited: Cabrales, after reading all those "pc" messages on France, I'm almost immune to a lighter tone. Missed it, Cabrales, and your lampposts, thank G.

Frieda