MovieChat Forums > Gigi (1949) Discussion > Barbotage???

Barbotage???

posted 14 years ago by folkepalm
5 replies | jump to latest

What is the drink that Gigi has at the ice rink. Gaston calls it a "barbotage."

It involves champagne, cognac and orange flavored liquor. Wasn't she 15 years old at the time? Mon Dieu!

This is where our American Puritanism comes in. French children, until recently, grew up drinking wine with lunch and breakfast. In the turn of the 20th Century France, rural people drank wine with every meal, especially as water sanitation wasn't yet reliable, even in Paris.

For a girl to be out with a man of Gaston Lachaille's reputation and prestige, serving a 16 year old girl a liqueur would have raised few eyebrows. Also, a young girl of 16, in those days, was regarded as a young woman, far more so than today.

[–] AliciaHuberman59 8 years ago

Thank you, Caribeno, you make very good points. Thank you for putting it in perspective. 

"No, I don't like to cook, but I have a chicken in the icebox, and you're eating it."

[–] caribeno 8 years ago

Dear McKee-4:

You're welcome!

[–] EvaMarie (1) 2 years ago

My goodness,, this whole thing about American Puritanism - do you really think the French were degenerate enough to give a 15 year old THAT concoction? The one referred to in the movie was little more than what we know as a 'Shirley Temple':
".....there appears to be two versions of Barbotage drinks. One is a liqueur cocktail, composed of Champagne, Cointreau, and Brandy, and the other is likely similar to the version ordered for Gigi, that she drinks with a straw. The latter is a melange of citrus juice, shaken with Grenadine, and served in glass topped off with Champagne."