The French want weed, not wine

Across France this Easter families will gather to eat, drink and, in many cases, smoke drugs. There are five million regular cannabis smokers in France and a further 600,000 who are classified as cocaine addicts.

The number of people who consume wine on a regular basis is just over seven million (11 per cent of the population), a figure that has been in freefall this century.

In the past 60 years the consumption of wine has plummeted in France, from 120 litres per person per year in 1960 to less than 40 litres in 2020. The beret and string of onions round the neck was always an Anglo-Saxon stereotype about our neighbours but not so their love of wine. While we Brits would nurse our pints of stout or bitter, the French would uncork a bottle of red.

No more. In the last ten years the number of regular wine drinkers has fallen by 32 per cent, resulting in brutal ramifications for the major distributors.