Memorandum to Beattie No.1

Lord, the French.

Or 'Les French' as they like to style themselves when chez themselves.

There are an enormous number of non-French people who take every opportunity to criticise them for their ways and means, and their general ability to be foreign to chaps like you and me.

But there is one thing that they do excel in, and one from which certain parsimonious English wallahs could learn a thing or two.

Now I'm not one to grumble, you know me, the ungrumbliest of bloggers, absolutely. And if there's a high-horse to be mounted, I will be hot-footing it in an autre direction, absoluement. Moral high-ground? I might occupy it merely by virtue of my very essence, but am never one to draw attention to my saintliness.

So, as a lesson to Beattie in his Top Bar-Steward capacity, I say look and learn from Les French and their generosity a la alcohol.