Mention of Auxerre and St. Patrick at last Saturday's dinner reminded me of an association with another spirit.

Some years back we were staying in a village near Auxerre and as is my want I generally go for a run early in the morning where ever we may be staying. As I ran through the park at Vermenton I passed a high hedged cul de sac in which there was a weird looking apparatus belching steam. I noted also that near it was a large pile of vegetable matter, a pile of polythene containers and a couple of furtive looking men.

My curiosity aroused, I decided that a few laps were in order so that with each lap I could further observe this strange apparatus. Occasionally I would pass a person walking toward the cul de sac each carrying a container. These would be added to the pile already there, near the belching, shuddering machine.

After a few passes I realised that the vegetable matter consisted of grapes and grape skins and was the detritus of wine production, Chablis is just over the hill. What I had seen was an alambic - a small distillation plant. The grape residue was heated in the boiler, the vapours chilled and lo and behold we have Marc. One has to applaud the recycling project but I did wonder about the quality of the product and its headache properties. On the other hand there were a large pile of containers so it must have been popular.

Somehow, it did not appear to be a legal operation and I galloped off not to be thought of as a spy and feared that the apparatus could explode.