Top 10 revolutionary drinks
16th July, 2012
by
Rupert Millar
Aux armes citoyens!

The Bastille is stormed
Champagne appears to flow through the story of the French Revolution as freely as aristocratic blood through the furrows of fields (if the Marseillaise is to be believed).
Why the revolution started is well known, with building resentment against the increasingly decadent and corrupt French ruling classes finally erupting in the storming of the Paris Bastille on 14 July 1789.
Part of that decadence can be linked to either Madame de Pomadour (consort of Louis XV) or Marie Antoinette (wife of Louis XVI) either one of whom legend asserts offered their breast as the model for the classic Champagne coupe.
Meanwhile, one of the leading revolutionaries, Georges Jacques Danton was born in the Champagne region in the village of Acris-sur-Aube.
Another legend asserts that he even bathed in the stuff, whether this is true or not is of course pure speculation and probably largely linked to his rather wild lifestyle but he did bathe regularly – a practice that led to the grisly murder of his fellow revolutionary, Jean-Paul Marat, stabbed to death in his tub by Charlotte Corday.
Eventually, though, like all good tragedies, Louis, Marie Antoinette and Danton all ended up at the mercy of Madame Guillotine.