Initially, it was a French paradox. Why do the French have fewer cardiovascular diseases than the inhabitants of other developed countries? Why does the occurrence of heart attacks remain so moderate in this country where moderation is so poorly practiced?

Let's see, let's see.

Low cigarette consumption? Hmm, that's an explanation that doesn't go down well.

Cretan eating habits? Hard to believe. Especially if you've just come back from Crete.

Wine and health

No, wine, I tell you. Wine is to France what lungs are to Molière. Wine? Wine, because the French are the world's leading consumers. And it's a well-established medical fact that regular wine consumption (if it remains moderate) protects against cardiovascular disease.

Bacchus, do you have a heart? It very well might be. But that's nothing yet.

As the musician Jean-Philippe Rameau – a very French musician – has him sing in his opera Platée:

"Charming Bacchus,

God of freedom,

Father of sincerity

(…)

You allow us to laugh

My heart is full of truth

Saying it will bring him relief.

If wine is good for the heart, it is first and foremost good for the heart that is moved. " What is beautiful is what moves us ," said Baudelaire. Wine is not only good—something everyone can attest to by the immediate effect—it is also beautiful.

Everything is a matter of mood in the sometimes drab fabric of life and time. Wine is the shimmering nuance of mood, repainting gray matter in the colors of joy. The ancestral foundation of the good life in this land where, as La Fontaine wrote, " It is the foundation that is least lacking ." It flows naturally, as always with La Fontaine; but let's hope this fountain isn't filled with water.

It is no coincidence that in the land of good living and happiness – “ Happy as God in France ,” say the English – wine has always been seen as the detail of savoir-vivre in which national culture is reflected.

Wine is therefore as French as the rabbit is wild.