Paris:- Saturday, 29. March 1997:- Bordeaux researchers are at it again, with reports of findings which seems to show that three or four glasses - between a quarter and a half-litre - of red wine a day, will ward off senility.

This comes after other recent research news from southern, grape-growing, regions of France, claiming a couple of pops of wine a day protect will the body from certain cancers and heart attacks.

That red wine, regardless of the origin, may be good for the brain, has been unknown until now. Rather, it was thought to be the cause the DTs and memory loss - but a three-year study by Dr. Orgozzo, a neurologist, shows red wine to be effective for 75 percent of those treated.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that two or three million French residents have problems with alcohol, either because they consume too much of it or they are addicted to it. The 'addicted' part is new, but should throw some light towards aiding people to get off the sauce.

I never heard of this before, but apparently there is now a drug on the market in France that reduces craving for booze by 'addicts,' or alkies as they were once called.

The drug 'Aotal' has been joined by a second, named 'Revia,' Professor Jean Adès announced. As head of the psychiatric service at the Louis-Mourier Hospital in Colombes, near Paris, he was addressing doctors attending the 25th Salon de la Médécine, held last week at Paris-Expo.

The new drug, taken over a six-month period, is supposed to prevent booze 'addicts' from falling into the bottle again. Apparently, for some people, drinking alcohol changes something in their brains, which leads in an inordinate desire for booze.

Professor Adès does not claim miracles for the new drug. He says it can be useful in stabilizing patients for a period of time, so they can be treated for other life-threatening illnesses.

I can not verify the Bordeaux reports independently, but I have spent time at the Louis-Mourier Hospital; but without being informed there was a psychiatric unit there, one specializing in alcohol 'addicts.'

A Front National Vote is a Dubious Alternative for Absention

Last Saturday, the socialist mayor of Strasbourg, Catherine Trautmann, planted an 'Arbre de la Tolérance' - a tolerance tree - probably as a sort of a reminder to the delegates of the Front National, who are attending their party's congress there today.

During the week, Le Parisien ran a series of profiles of Front National voters, which served to throw some light on the party's supporters. Not surprisingly, a minority of those interviewed revealed themselves as hard-core right-wingers who would belong to any similar party, regardless of its name.

Some of the others interviewed, seemed to have voted for FN candidates mainly because they are vexed with the leadership of the main-stream parties; and this group includes former communists.

These are the most curious. On one hand, the French Communist party is rising in popularity since being led by Robert Hue - who looks like a Lutheran pastor - and since the party no longer follows any line from Moscow, because there is none.

Then there are the ex-communists who stayed with it through thick and thin, who followed every Kremlin twist and turn and about-turn, and now find themselves at a loss with its new, kinder visage. To them, the present communists are as bad as their 70-year long enemies, the socialists; while the present socialists are not an acceptable alternative, because they are moving too close to the centre.

Recent polls have shown that in the four municipalities run by Front National majorities, no more than 10 to 20 percent of voters are completely satisfied, with about a third being 'satisfied enough.' The 'no opinions' run at about 20 percent.

Over half of all voters in the four towns do not want to see the full FN program applied to where they live; and if the last elections could be re-run today, 43 percent would vote against the FN candidate; while 29 percent would vote FN again. Abstentions and 'no opinions' amount to 28 percent.

Meanwhile, in the absence of any concentrated action by the majority parties of the right - the RPR and the UDF - the Socialist Party is trying to rally itself, to lead the fight against the presumed rise of the FN. It looks like the new-model Communist Party will join the fight too.

I have spent too many words on this discourse; so I have none left for the anti-FN demo in Strasbourg tonight. All I will say is that Le Pen got himself re-elected as head of the ultra-right-wing anti-'immigrant,'anti-'Euro,' anti-Semitic political party, under the slogan of 'Le Grand Changement.'

After trashers broke the usual number of shop windows and brewed-up the usual number of private cars, about 30 were arrested this evening. I do not know if they were members of Le Pen's tough and numerous 'Brown Shirt' security forces or free-lance street thugs on a general spree.

The mayor, Madame Trautmann, had arranged for the assistance of 1,500 police, CRS, and mobile gendarmes, to reinforce the municipal police.

The European Union Has Its 40th Birthday

The Treaty of Rome, was signed by six European countries 40 years ago, on 25. March 1957. Now the countdown has started for the introduction of a European-wide currency, to be known as the 'Euro.'

In keeping with Metropole's principle of reports about the European Union, I'm afraid this makes the third week running that we have used a 'new' 'Euro'-word; in this case, 'Euro' itself.

The 'Euro' as cash money that you, me and all the little peopl use, has been selected as the ultimate test of acceptance of the European Union itself. If Brussels can sell us the 'Euro,' then that wraps up the whole ball of string and we can quit worrying about 'becoming,' and start 'being.'