Doggy bags for wine

Paris

French restaurants have begun allowing their customers to take home open bottles of wine. Wine consumption has been dropping since the government began a crackdown on drunken driving last year, and restaurateurs were worried that people would stop ordering that second bottle. So now they are offering reusable corks and pretty bags so patrons don’t feel compelled to either drink too much or waste an excellent vintage. Some anti-alcohol activists oppose the bags, saying they will encourage people to polish off the bottle in the car. The blood-alcohol limit in France, 0.05 percent, is lower than in the U.S., where most states charge drunken driving at 0.08 percent or 0.1 percent.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up