I wouldn’t normally double post, but I thought this might be of interest to those who enjoy a drink. It was a comment that suggested that only Britain exports alcoholic beverages that reminded me of absinthe, the drink that has only been legalised again in France relatively recently.
There is an absinthe bar in a little cellar in a narrow street in an old town in the south of France. Each table has a water fountain with four tiny taps. There is a list of different absinthes to choose from. None of them have names like Van Gogh’s Delirium or Verlaine’s Folly, but it was the claim that the essence of wormwood contained in the drink led aficionados to alcoholism and madness that caused it to be banned in France. If you order absinthe, you are provided with sugar lumps and a spoon with holes in it. Put a sugar cube in the spoon and balance it on the glass with the absinthe, then place the glass under a tap of your water fountain and let the water drip slowly on to the sugar and through the holes until the mixture is to your taste. The sugar was originally necessary to counteract the bitterness of the wormwood.
The bar also serves other drinks and has a collection of eccentric hats for those wishing to recreate the “fin de siecle”. It is a delightful place to spend an evening, whether you wish to try absinthe or not.
Boadicea's Chariot 
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