Wine and Sobriety Checks

Warning against drink-and-drive on the freeway"Boire et conduire = Danger" (Drink and drive = Danger). I took a shot of this variable-message sign last Christmas as we were leaving Paris for Burgundy. Thousands of cars were leaving Paris on congested highways for the week and the signs reminded the french drivers, who were about to enjoy Christmas' and new year's libations, of the risks and of the law .
Recent years have seen the french wine lover under intense pressure because of agressive anti-alcohol campaigns (with no distinction made between wine and hard liquors), more frequent sobriety checks on the road and increased penalties for offenders. The state and its agencies have financed many adds and tools in this intention, like this tiny foldable scale (5,2 X 8,5 cm) to estimate the alcohol in the blood for men or women weighing from 45 to 90 kilograms (scaled from 5 to 5)...All of this has added to the slump of wine sales in France, especially in restaurants, when there is some driving planned after then. With this undeniable pressure on french drivers to carefully monitor their alcohol intake, people either abstain or drink very little, because knowing exactly how much you actually got in your blood is pure guess. Or they rely on single-use breath testers to try to know by themselves if they are over the limit. In the pharmacy aisle of a supermarket : Breath testers, between condoms and callus removers...(4 Euro for a 3-unit pack, here)
If random spot checks are rare in Paris (except maybe on the Champs Elysées) you are more likely to fall upon a sobriety checkpoint if you drive (or ride) on our country roads in the evening. Then, if you just come out of a good dinner with some wine (just forget it if you took an aperitif), all you can do is just cross fingers that you'll pass the test without harm...
In France, the limit is 0,5 gram/liter (of blood), which is the equivalent of 0,25 mg per liter of expired breath. Under this level, you are fine. Between 0,5 & 0,8, you get a fine (92 Euro to 137 Euro) and you loose 3 points on your driving license (which originally has 12 points). Over 0,8 g/l, you have committed a crime and the fine is 4574 Euro, plus you loose 6 points and a judge may suppress your license and give you a jail term (up to 2 years). Police Prefecture's website about limits... TranslationYellow crystals turn green on both sides : intoxicated ! The question is (and it is widely debated in french internet forums): How much wine can we actually drink to be safe ? We hear that 2 glasses (12cl) of wine may put you over the line, but that depends of many factors like your weight, your food, and others. I decided I would make a try of these breath testers on a normal dinner of this year's end. My weight and height are about 74 kilograms and 1,89m (6ft 2') . After drinking (while eating) maybe a little more than two glasses of a great St Estephe Cos D'Estournel 1988 (13°), plus a glass of California Project 3000 Syrah (14,8°), a powerful and spicy wine, I blew into the device . First problem : We never fill full glasses, but usually 1/3 of the glass, then have another pour before the glass is empty, and so on, which means knowing how many actual glasses we had is arduous. Second problem : It says on the tester's package that you have to blow until the little red point on it turns white, then wait to see any change of colour in the yellow crystals inside. The red point did turn white , but only half of it, like a half moon, so I reapeatedly blew to try to have it turn wholly white (which it failed to do). So, I may have blown too much in it, which may have impaired the results. The maker needs to explain more thoroughly here.

Upper situation : right . Lower : Bad (it was mine)Whatever. As indicated here, if I properly used the device, I am on the bad side of the line and should'nt drive (I did not have to, that evening), as the yellow crystals have turned green on both sides of the mark .
I did not drive this evening, but many of us do and take the risk of a back road encounter with law enforcement. Of course, I can think I'll drive carefully and go away with it, but the problem is that in France the police do not check drivers driving oddly or erratically, and its policy is to check every one passing through the road segment they choose to "filter".Internet forum about ways to deceive the sobriety checksOne of the answers french drivers have is to imagine ways to deceive the devices and the results, and one of them is the famous french bonbons Croibleu, credited by a poster here as lowering the alcohol in the breath. I don't know if it really works , but you often find them on restaurants bill trays, and a vigneron recently gave me several of them at the end of a tasting when I told him I had to drive thereafter and feared late-evening checks.
Also cited in the forum : a medication for asthma (Ventoline). Another poster says that the technique used by apneists, using the stomach to store bigger volumes of air, works well...A Croibleu on a restaurant bill tray, near BeauneWhen you take one of these, you get this instant, poweful fresh feeling not only in the mouth but in the larynx, sinus and I would say in every neuron of the brain. Don't use them the other way around (before drinking wine) , you would ruin your wine experience.... They are made in Neuville en Ferrain by "Europeenne de Confiserie", a sweets manufacturing company, and partially owe their commercial success to this (never officially promoted as such) credited ability to counter the breath testers.
Of course, the important thing is to be careful on the road, because there are still about 5000 deaths/year in France, which is a lot, even compared to the figures we had a few years ago : 13170 in 1975, going slowly down to 7720 in 2001 (see chart of deaths on french roads (tués) in this page).

Comments

[Dr. Vino]

Thanks for this informative post Bertrand...Maybe your breathalyzer didn't approve of mixing young Cali Syrah with mature Bordeaux?!?! Cheers.

[hikalu]

Fortunately or unfortunately, I can't drive. lol
Besides, Japan is small and You could go home by train, if you wouldn't drink till midnight. If you did, well, some of people go to a club and dance or do something to kill the time and get the train at the morning. Some would go home by taxi, but the fare get more expensive at midnight. I suggest this, "capsule hotel", a kinda hotel which we call that way. it's unique, and cheap. it can be cheaper than getting a taxi. I hardly use the way though. I rather go home. :)
see this page below. someone has written an article about the hotel.

http://www.yesicanusechopsticks.com/capsule/

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