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Retirees need at least €15,000 a year to live with dignity in France, finds report
This amount does not include the cost of accommodation or bills, and focuses only on commonly-used goods and services
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Are you due a free Christmas parcel from your mairie in France?
Mairies distribute festive parcels containing food and other goodies
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Row continues over €1.39 bottles of French wine in Lidl supermarkets
French winemakers and farmers angry about bottles of wine being sold for less than the cost to produce them
Champagne fizzes to new records
An unofficial barometer of the state of the French economy hints that the future may be bright
Champagne sales are regarded in some circles as a bellwether of a country's economic fortunes - and that means that the outlook for France is excellent heading into 2018.
Fizz sales smashed through the €5billion barrier in the past 12 months as purchases soared by 6% on the previous year, according to official figures. And, for the first time in six years, half those sales were made in France, hinting that optimism is rising across the country.
America, meanwhile, has been the main driver of champagne sales overseas, as French houses celebrated record sales in the States. Trans-atlantic success was enough to compensate for a slump in sales in French bubbly's traditional export market leader, Britain, where sales have dipped markedly in the past 12 months.
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