[Ron Stringer]

You speak of Cognac and Armagnac.

Many years ago we were staying at a hotel in the Pyrenees Occidentales. After a eating a very good dinner the waiter asked if we would like un digestif. My wife chose a Cointreau and I asked for a Cognac.

The waiter looked puzzled and said, "Cognac, monsieur, qu'est-ce que c'est?"

I thought that my decades-old schoolboy O-level French had let me down again or that my Lancashire accent was to blame so had several attempts to pronounce the word in a clearer fashion but without success. Try as I could I just could get him to understand what I wanted. Stretching my linguistic ability to the extreme I went into detail about distilling wine to make "boisson spiritueux plus fort."

A light of comprehension dawned across his face and he said, "Ah, Monsieur vous demandez un Armagnac".

At that point I realised that I had been had, his lack of recognition was an act. Since we were in the heart of the Armagnac region he was having a joke with me while also sticking to his regional roots. There was no way he was going to sell me a competitor's product.

It also brought home to me something that I found all over France - the people are not just proud of being French, they are fiercely loyal to their local connections. The wine of their region is always far superior to that of their neighbours (or anywhere else), local food specialities cannot be matched elsewhere.

When people used to tell me that being in the EU was giving up control of our lives to Brussels I used to think of that waiter, who was not even prepared to recognise the procucts and the activities in another French town/region less than 100km away, let alone in another country. There was no way that Brussels could make the French do anything that they did not welcome.