Questioning wine

I don't know the legal limits, but I do know that French law now requires you to have your own personal breathalyzer kit in the car, along with fluorescent safety vest and other misc items . I imagine they are provided in rental cars in France.

There are previous answers in a related thread at
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/food-drink/alcohol-limits-for-drivers-in-france

There is more detail in this version of the question - thanks.

I deal with this general issue at work as I am in a safety critical occupation and we have regular testing. It is made very clear to us that the blood alcohol level is dependent not only on sex and size but very importantly the metabolism of the individual. Everybody is different and I would be very loath (I don't like lawsuits) to suggest that any individual could drink this and be fine and that and not be fine.

What you must be aware of are these:

Table wines will vary in strength and most likely will not be labeled.

The French police regularly do random breath tests on various types of roads and if the individual is found to have committed an offense the penalties are extremely harsh by North American standards.

There is now a law requiring drivers to have 2 breath test devices in the car they are driving - there are issues with this but it is still the law.

French blood alcohol limits are much lower than British ones which are in turn much lower than US ones. In my job it is considered dangerous to keeping a job to have consumed more than one glass of wine less than twelve hours before reporting for work. Needless to say you need to be using much less than that if there is a chance of a test right after drinking.

My strong advice is that the designated driver should consume zero alcohol prior to driving.

Now I'm not French - British - and maybe others will disagree with me but that's my contribution.

East of Bandol, which isn't even on the Cote d'Azur, wineries are few and scattered. If you do go to one of the few wineries in the hills, expect wine with a high alcohol level. This isn't an area known for its wine, so this may turn out to be a non-issue. The best wine tasting may be with meals.

As for blood alcohol level when you taste, you could spit, not swallow. The driver certainly should be asking for the spit bucket.

Since there are 2 of you, the designated driver approach should work well. Alternate DD each day. We've been living in Austria now for 10 years and we are still extremely careful in this regard. In Vienna, random check points on weekends can and do happen, and the standards are pretty high. My wife and I take public or taxis if we know we'll be drinking. I'm aware that that might not be an approach that works in your situation. But my wife and I always marvel at the paradox: Austria is fairly awash in beer and wine, yet we rarely see blatant public drunkeness in Vienna.

Hi Brenda, check with your hotel to see if there's a day trip you can take to visit the local wineries. We did that in Sonoma and the Napa Valley in California and it worked out well. A shuttle picked us up and dropped us off, no driving, no problem. Maybe there's something like that available in France.

Just one problem, Donna. This isn't a wine region like Napa, Sonoma, even Provence. Wineries are few and scattered. They might be able to hire a driver to take them to the few wineries, though.

I would advocate for the above mentioned spit, not swallow. I have gone wine tasting in the Napa valley and I find that it works very well. We have gone to 3 wineries, sampling 5-7 wines per winery, all within 3-5 hour period of time. I would do the sniff and swish and spit and feel no alcohol buzz throughout the day. You really don't miss anything with spitting it out. All the professional wine tasters and raters do it.