Spirits: The French Eau-de-Vie Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Spirits: The French Eau-de-Vie Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

France is famous for its musketeers, imbibing spirits, eau-de-vie, in novels such as The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, Gil Blas by Alain-René Lesage, and Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand.

When I worked in Chicago and Paris, many visiting businessmen did want to take French brandy home as gifts, because it was hard to export it to Japan in the 1990s.  Now it is easier to export brandy, but people do not know what all the different products are.  I have listed some different French brandies below that might interest people besides cognac.

Also, if I do not have vanilla for cakes, I will use cognac or other brandies in its place, since most liquid vanilla has alcohol in it.

If you are just going to visit Paris, there are two main stores that you can visit that have a selection of food products.  These stores can package the eau-de-vie, insure it, fill out customs papers, and ship it, so you do not have pack bottles of liquid in your suitcase.

The stores that are set up in Paris for food and alcohol sales to foreign tourists are Fauchon and Hédiard.  Film festival venues might consider setting boutiques for these stores and souvenir pick-up points during film festivals to increase sales tax.

Eau-de-Vie Suggestions follow:

-Calvados – apple brandy from Normandy

-Mirabelle – yellow plum brandy from the Lorraine

-Poire William – pear brandy from Alsace

-Cognac – grape-based brandy from the Charente region

-Armagnac – grape-based brandy from the Gers, Landes, and Lot-et-Garonne Regions

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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