Hamish Champ: Drinking lots of beer in Paris has consequences

Sometimes one comes across cultural differences between the peoples of two nations that are so stark, so… gulf-like in their make-up, that one wonders how on earth there can be any common ground between them.

This conundrum was raised at the weekend when I went to Paris to see England play South Africa in the Rugby World Cup Final - and before you ask, no, I didn't 'go corporate'. I went with some mates.

Forget the fact that the French capital was crippled by a transport strike which meant the few metro trains that did run were obscenely overcrowded - and I bet that wouldn't have happened if Les Bleus had made it to the final!

No, what I noticed - not for the first time - was how different the Anglo Saxon approach to drinking booze is compared to our hosts.

Café culture doesn't enter into it; Parisians just don't drink alcohol for the sheer sake of it on the scale that we Brits (and Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans, etc) do.

Crucially, this lack of interest is reflected in a vital omission for drinkers; those toilets that do exist in French public buildings and restaurants are bladder-achingly few in number.

Cafes, bars, even restaurants, can have just one cubicle for a venue that can otherwise cater for hundreds of people. This means that queues of people wanting to 'go' can be awfully long, although I suppose at least one has time to chat to the person - male or female, there's no standing on ceremony in these places - who goes in before or after you.

Things don't get much better in a modern building like the Stade de France, where a combination of hefty beer consumption and pitifully small toilet facilities took their toll before, during and after the game. As an Aussie rugby fan said to me as we queued for what seemed like an eternity in the stadium at half time: "Jeez mate, the French don't know anything about building dunnies." Quite.

Everyone - but women in particular - going into a bar, pub, club, etc, knows they can tell a lot about an establishment by the quality of its lavatories.

It is an observation I would dare to suggest that the French hospitality sector takes onboard sharpish…