Dear Fellow ATHG members,
There's an article in this morning's Washington Post that will be of interest
to you, with the title, "In France, Thirst for Wine is Drying Up."  You
should be (well, may be!) able to access this through the website,
www.washingtonpost.com

As the caption to one of the pictures notes, "The French traditionally drank
wine with every meal, but many now say they drink it only a few times a week,
if it all."  This is surely a major cultural change, and the article provides
charts to quantify the size of it since 1980.  In that year 24% of the French
population were non-consumers of wine, and that rose to 37% in 2000.    The
numbers of regular (=almost every day) consumers have dropped even more
dramatically, from 47% in 1980 to 24% in 2000.

The average per capita consumption of wine in France has plummeted from 26.5
gallons in 1960, to 21 gallons in 1980, and down to 14.5 gallons in 2000.
However, I assume that wine growers are not yet contemplating suicide, for
France still remains the world's largest consumer of wine, downing 16% of the
total (followed by Italy, then the US).

Pat Prestwich and Scott Haine: this sounds like a call for more fieldwork!

Best wishes,
Geoffrey

Professor Geoffrey J. Giles
Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence

Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington DC 20024-2126

Office phone: (202)-488-2622
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