Ici legalité. (2)

When I was a student living in Celigny another resident of the village was Richard Burton - Liz Taylor not so much because she didn’t like the place.  When she was in residence, the Burton-Taylors would occasionally come to dinner with our Director.   

Anyway, our pub was the Hotel du Soleil, while Monsieur Richard drank most evenings in the Cafe de la Gare. His house was just the other side of the railway line, and it was a matter of some wonderment locally that he managed to get home without colliding with the Lausanne-Bound rapide.

On the night that he died in August 1984, he had been drinking as often with fellow actor John Hurt. They left to go home, where Burton had a stroke and passed away.


Back in the pub, the next evening, the owner produced a bottle of wine about half full. This was the bottle that Monsieur Richard had last drunk from before leaving the pub, indeed - as it turned out - the earth.


Would the customer like to take a sip of history? It would be necessary to charge a bit more than normal for such a special glass of wine - given the circumstances. Mais oui!


There were two suspicious things about this deal. One was the notion that Monsieur Richard would leave any bottle unfinished. The other strange thing was that customers for days after the event were being offered the same proposition. Many glasses were filled, and somehow the bottle never got quite empty.   Mind you a lot of journalists were there - so who knows?



The Burton House - called "Le pays de Galles". - French for Wales.

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