In the mountains of southern France, a 77-year-old cyclist recently proved that when all else fails, red wine will always be there for you. On his way home from the supermarket in the Cevennes region, the man missed a curve and sailed off the road, plummeting 130 feet into a ravine.
The man remained there for three days—three days of being battered by cold rain and with no food and no help in sight. Cars passed along the road more than 100 feet above his head, but none of the passing drivers could hear his cries for help. The only thing he had was the bottles of wine he was bringing home.
So, he drank them. Those bottles somehow kept him alive long enough for passing roadworkers to hear his voice echoing up from the ravine. When rescuers finally pulled him out, a helicopter whisked him to a hospital, where a doctor called his survival “a miracle.”
“In the cold and damp, with almost no food or water, he’s incredibly resilient,” said Dr. Laurent Savath, chief medical officer of the Hérault Fire Department.
What’s wild is that this isn’t even new. In 2023, an Australian woman got lost in the bush for five days and stayed alive on nothing but lollipops and a bottle of wine. In this case, it wasn’t even her bottle to drink. It was a Mother’s Day gift for someone else. I’m assuming that mother forgave the indiscretion.
Both survivors faced nature’s worst with the same desperate logic: when the chips are down, hydration is hydration. It’s the sort of thing that makes you rethink all those survivalist TV shows. Forget building a fire with sticks or filtering water through moss—maybe all you really need in an emergency kit is a decent Merlot and the will to keep shouting until someone finds you.
Because sometimes, survival isn’t about skill or planning. It’s about grit, dumb luck, and the quiet heroism of refusing to die before the last drop is gone.
Dining and Cooking