The fall of France: from best wines to burgers and coke

I don’t know the contents of the late Charles J Haughey’s wine cellar but I believe they were impressive. But however extensive his cellar was, I’m sure it could not compete with the cellars stocked by Jacques Chirac when he was mayor of Paris. Apparently Jacques liked to entertain in style and still does. The current Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, is being accused by a French food historian of auctioning off the City Hall’s ‘grand crus’. The municipality’s collection is housed below the Hôtel de Ville, on the right bank of the Seine. Chirac started it in 1977 and it…