✅ This is true, though it sounds unbelievable by today's standards. For much of the 20th century, French schoolchildren were indeed served wine at lunch, especially in rural areas.
🍷 French Schoolchildren Were Once Served Wine at Lunch 📆 When?
This practice was common until 1956, especially in elementary and secondary schools.
In some rural areas, it persisted even into the 1970s before being completely phased out.
🏫 Who Got the Wine? Children aged 14 and older were legally allowed to consume diluted wine, beer, or cider during school meals.
Younger children (under 14) sometimes drank slightly alcoholic cider or diluted wine, depending on local customs.
🥂 Why Was This Allowed? Wine was considered a normal and healthy part of the French diet, even for children.
Water supplies in some areas were not always clean or reliable, making diluted wine or cider a safer option.
It reflected France’s deep cultural ties to wine, viewed as a staple of everyday life.
📉 When Did It Stop? In 1956, the French government banned alcohol in schools for children under 14.
In 1981, under President François Mitterrand, a law was passed banning all alcohol (even diluted) in schools for minors, ending the tradition completely.
🧒 Health & Cultural Shift The change reflected a growing awareness of alcohol’s health effects, especially on children.
It also coincided with efforts to modernize and standardize school nutrition and public health policy.
🔍 Summary For decades, wine with lunch was not unusual in French schools — children could have up to four small glasses (about 125mL each) per meal. Though hard to imagine today, this practice reflected France’s cultural norms at the time. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that the country fully banned alcohol for schoolchildren.
Y luego dicen ke nosotros los mexicas somos bien de esos borrachotes (que guardadito se lo tenían por eso nos mandaron a maxi y a Carlotita🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🍻🍻🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
I grew up with both a pair of Swiss French and Italian grandparents with meals on special occasions my sister and I got a half glass of wine mixed with water then as we got older we could drink two glasses of wine without water
I think their president was still fed wine by his lover/teacher, I can’t think of any other reason he fell in love with him. It’s as ugly as a hat full of date holes
Now global warming and shortage of water will ecentually phase out wine making completely. Australians are already facing this issue. Apparently you need 500 litre of water to make half a glass of wine, so you can imagine how water is required to make water commercially.
Do you know how French perfume come in existence and got popular for their strong fragrance? French were so filthy and immoral that they urinate every where due their alcoholic drinks through out the day, and they need to urinate frequently, it was cumbersome to go to urinals as they were at the remote end of palaces or mansions. So they just urinate everywhere. To suppress that pungent smell, they got perfumes.
I'm Russian and they said I was collicy so they served me vodka in my bottles, I'm a full grown adult and a lid fulls about all I can handle now, I asked my dad how much and he said ahh about a lid full, not enough to harm u. 😂😂😂
It was either a tough year for the teachers oorrrr maybe 🤔 it was a good year all the kids were passed out asleep after one glass and the teachers got the rest with a quiet day 🤣
45 Comments
✅ This is true, though it sounds unbelievable by today's standards. For much of the 20th century, French schoolchildren were indeed served wine at lunch, especially in rural areas.
🍷 French Schoolchildren Were Once Served Wine at Lunch
📆 When?
This practice was common until 1956, especially in elementary and secondary schools.
In some rural areas, it persisted even into the 1970s before being completely phased out.
🏫 Who Got the Wine?
Children aged 14 and older were legally allowed to consume diluted wine, beer, or cider during school meals.
Younger children (under 14) sometimes drank slightly alcoholic cider or diluted wine, depending on local customs.
🥂 Why Was This Allowed?
Wine was considered a normal and healthy part of the French diet, even for children.
Water supplies in some areas were not always clean or reliable, making diluted wine or cider a safer option.
It reflected France’s deep cultural ties to wine, viewed as a staple of everyday life.
📉 When Did It Stop?
In 1956, the French government banned alcohol in schools for children under 14.
In 1981, under President François Mitterrand, a law was passed banning all alcohol (even diluted) in schools for minors, ending the tradition completely.
🧒 Health & Cultural Shift
The change reflected a growing awareness of alcohol’s health effects, especially on children.
It also coincided with efforts to modernize and standardize school nutrition and public health policy.
🔍 Summary
For decades, wine with lunch was not unusual in French schools — children could have up to four small glasses (about 125mL each) per meal. Though hard to imagine today, this practice reflected France’s cultural norms at the time. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that the country fully banned alcohol for schoolchildren.
4 x 125 ml = I/2 a litre, yay. 🙂
Very little alcohol.
It was made because the local water wasn't safe to drink.
I bet every day for the kids, felt like a PARTY!!! 😮😮😮
I guess they never missed a day😂
That’s the reason they have a good accent
Wth 😮
French here. That's not true.
125 ml are NOT four glasses.
If it was UNTIL 1956 then that’s the best year the teachers ever had, technically
In Russia the were allowed to drink vodka during recess
Shyt you are worried about the teacher? 😂😂 what about them kids who were served the wine! Act right!!
Well thats,a way to make school popular among children
Disgraceful. Adults did this among other things. Look what's happening today.
They couldn't drink the water ….
Ah, les jours bons vieux!
Is this true?How can a child study and concentrate ,is beyond me 😘🇨🇦
And soon after the “Hotty Tooty School Cheer was born!”
I don't believe it
Y luego dicen ke nosotros los mexicas somos bien de esos borrachotes (que guardadito se lo tenían por eso nos mandaron a maxi y a Carlotita🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🍻🍻🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
After two glasses I'd be close to passing out.
I grew up with both a pair of Swiss French and Italian grandparents with meals on special occasions my sister and I got a half glass of wine mixed with water then as we got older we could drink two glasses of wine without water
Italy. I was 6 years old and they gave me a bottle of wine at the table
It was a hard reset
4 glasses, you are lucky now if you get offered a cup of tea
When there were real men.
Nothing wrong with drinking!
Wrong is if You drink when You shouldn’t .
The afternoon recess must have been jolly.
😂
In 1956 America kids at school got a pack of Camel filter less and a shot of Jack Daniels for lunch😂😂
My grade 2 teacher in the early 1970s used to have a bottle of whiskey in his desk he would mix with his coffee.
😮 WtF 😮
I think their president was still fed wine by his lover/teacher, I can’t think of any other reason he fell in love with him. It’s as ugly as a hat full of date holes
School was a drag, to say the least. I could have done with four glasses of wine a day to get through it. 😂
Drunk kids? That’s insane wtf
Hey, I bet school attendance was 100% in those days ..I'm just sayin
❤😂❤😂❤😂❤😂❤
Now global warming and shortage of water will ecentually phase out wine making completely. Australians are already facing this issue. Apparently you need 500 litre of water to make half a glass of wine, so you can imagine how water is required to make water commercially.
Do you know how French perfume come in existence and got popular for their strong fragrance? French were so filthy and immoral that they urinate every where due their alcoholic drinks through out the day, and they need to urinate frequently, it was cumbersome to go to urinals as they were at the remote end of palaces or mansions. So they just urinate everywhere. To suppress that pungent smell, they got perfumes.
I'm Russian and they said I was collicy so they served me vodka in my bottles, I'm a full grown adult and a lid fulls about all I can handle now, I asked my dad how much and he said ahh about a lid full, not enough to harm u. 😂😂😂
I'm French and I didn't know that 😮
That explains why France sucks
That explains a lot about Frenchies…
Alcoholic anonymous
It was either a tough year for the teachers oorrrr maybe 🤔 it was a good year all the kids were passed out asleep after one glass and the teachers got the rest with a quiet day 🤣
Getin