Boozy Brit arrests on the increase

Super Bock
Originally uploaded by Captain Mayhem

Moan though they do about the increase in property prices (supposedly) due to wealthy British investors, the French have always largely escaped the drunkenness among my compatriots that plagues other European destinations.

But according to a report just published by the UK Foreign Office on British Behaviour Abroad (the second of its kind), there was a 50% increase in arrests of UK citizens in France last year compared to 2006.

But let's not shake our arms about in a Gallic fashion and expel all the rosbifs on the next available ferry. After all, the figures for arrests, hospitalisations and general stupidity (like losing your passport) are impressively lower that those noted over the border in Spain, where over two thousand of Her Majesty's subjects were nicked for an array of usually alcohol-related misdemeanours (compared to just 153 in France) in 2007. Not bad when you consider that 14 million people travelled over the channel during this period, not counting the 200,000 'permanent' residents.

It seems that our dear friend the 'lager lout' is conspicuous by his absence in la héxagone, due possibly to higher prices in bars and the café rather than pub culture. That's not saying that the French are a nation of tea-totallers, frowning upon anyone who drinks more than they can handle - far from it. France's problem is that people get drunk at a friends house, and then think nothing of driving home, quite possible wrapping themselves around a lampost in the process.

In today's Dauphiné Libéré, the journalist reporting the story about British high-jinks kindly suggests that this over-indulgence might be a natural reaction to a sober and serious life back in the UK. Alas not - this theory is quickly dispelled by a visit to Newcastle on a Saturday night. Or indeed any night.