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The French Love Booze – It’s Cultural, Right?

Even though I grew up in France, the local drinking culture never ceases to amaze me. Okay, maybe “amaze” is the wrong word—it actually scares me more than anything. “La modération” is a foreign word here, in Brittany.

French drink a lot but they don’t realize it. Their excuse? “C’est culturel,” “it is our culture.” It is true to a certain extent. France does produce good wine and a lot of people truly enjoy it, but I am really not sure nursing a can of beer while grocery shopping should be considered “normal” or “part of the culture.” There is no legal drinking age—technically there is but I have never seen it being enforced, and teens can easily buy alcohol at the supermarket or in bars. Binge drinking is popular among students and even seemingly “responsible” people tend to drink too much at dinnertime.

I am not a teetotaller but I find it strange and slightly annoying to see people drunk in public during the day… And it gets worse at night, especially in the downtown core, where people party until sunrise and occasionally fight, get sick or express their drunkenness loudly in the street.

In Nantes, the area between Commerce and Bouffay is a long succession of pubs, kebab restaurants, cafés and wine bars. Terraces encroach on the sidewalk and the French enjoy their favourite activities—drinking, eating, chatting and smoking.

Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Art in Bouffay
Art in Bouffay
Art in Bouffay
Art in Bouffay
Sky in a Small Alley
Sky in a Small Alley
Street Light in a Small Alley
Street Light in a Small Alley
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Bouffay
Cours des 50 Otages
Cours des 50 Otages
Commerce
Commerce
Place Royale
Place Royale
Commerce
Commerce
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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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