Drinking and Driving

We just got an email from a friend who was given a most robust introduction to what it means to be wined and dined in rural France. For the context, read the following excerpt from his email:

With my travel-friend Hernan, we got quickly bored of small Geneva (although it's a beautiful city) and took a night train to the south east of france, the paix basque. We rented a car, stayed at a gite de france (bed and breakfast). Hernan was a most intimate friend of the gite hosting family and they took us in as long lost friends... I love it. But man, DO THEY DRINK. Whisky as an appetizer, a bottle of wine (great bujeolais or bordeaux) with the chicken stew, another bottle of wine with the cheese and then a small finishing whatever (homemade something, so who knows what proof it was) with a yoghurt to top it off.

They really push it down your throat and feel offended if you say "no." Luckily the roads in france are all curvy, because I could never go straight after a meal of theirs!