Even the pop of a champagne cork can't pull France out of a national funk.
According to The Financial Times, champagne sales in France were down 5 percent in the first 10 months of the year, and the "gloomy" national mood is to blame.
"There is a moroseness, a sadness among the French population at the moment which has led to our compatriots drinking a little less champagne this year," Paul-Franois Vranken, chairman of champagne house Vranken Pommery Monopole, told The FT's Scheherazade Daneshkhu.
"Champagne consumption follows the mood of the country. Today, there isn't a mood conducive to celebration," he added.
Between the shaky economy and recent defections of high-profile French citizens — like actor Gerard Depardieu, who recently announced he would abandon France for Belgium over high taxes — it's been a rough stretch for the French.
A 14 percent increase in excise duties on spirits hasn't helped sales of champagne and other alcohol, either, The FT wrote.
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