Drink wine.
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You really need to look a bit harderā¦
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Obviously you arenāt going to find real ales in France, but if you like darker beers rather than lager, you can find Pelforth Brune or Leffe Brune in all supermarkets and most bars too.
Even when thereās a plethora of local brasseurs? Perhaps they generally go more-or-less straight to bottle?
Usually a different process, lagers and eu brews are at a colder fermentation temperature than UK real ale, or so CAMERA used to say. With a different breed of hops.
I have a couple of English beer brewers in Riberac one with keg bitter and one produces hand pulled beer in Cheval near me.
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It depends what you call āproperā beer. Tripel Karmeliet from the supermarket at 3 euros a 75cl bottle hits all the right buttons for me!
French craft brewing is rapidly moving up in the world - Lemovice in Razes, near Limoges, OāClock in Bois dāArcy, Yvelines, and La Debauche in Angouleme are three great ones but there are very many now. In fact OāClock is second generation - the brewer started with Volcelest in Chevreuse IIRC.
Some of course are not as good as others, which is Godās way of telling you to try them all in order to find the good ones 
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Just opened this one. Very nice and organic ingredients too. I think these IPAs could satisfy my lust for British cask ale. A decent substitute.
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Come to Navarrenx in the BĆ©arn. You can drink my cask ale here 
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Yes you can find real ale in France. Look a little harder. Http://www.shakespearebrasserie.com
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I tried a selection of the local supermarketās offerings of French and Belgian brune and ambrĆ© beers. Havenāt found one that I donāt like yet.
Watch out for the Trappist style beers as they start at 6% and go way, way higher.
Find you local French brewery and see what the have to offer. Mine does a very nice stout and Xmas ale.
I always keep an eye out for those, hic 
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Has anyone ever tried Tactical Nuclear Penguin or Strength by Numbers?
They look like the beer equivalent of ordering the hottest curry on the menu in that after one mouthful, you wonāt be tasting anything.
Had a mouthful of some crazy expensive 35% Belgian champagne beer in Belgos many moons ago and it tasted like fizzy Special Brew.
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I find āBiere du Gardeā very pleasant. Used to buy it in Sainsburyās years ago. Now sold in Lidl.
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followed shortly after by 
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I think Iād happily share a bottle of the idiot strength brews once, if someone else paid, but when it gets to that strength Iād much rather have a malt whisky.
The absence of that is another glaring fault in France.
I always found that super strength beer was chewed not drank!
Always loads of whisky, single and decent blended whenever Iāve looked for it. Cognac is another matterā¦
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Itās not cheap but have you tried Moon Harbour whisky? Iām more of a bourbon drinker myself but even I enjoy it.
If youāre ever in Bordeaux then you can get a guided tour of the distillery in the old WWII submarine bunker (next door to the Bassins de LumiĆØres), with a dĆ©gustation at the end.
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