Following The Doctors' Orders

Christine, our favorite pharmacist, told us she has been inundated with prescriptions for colds and flus -- considerably more so this year than in the past.

You can imagine my delight then, when I saw a completely natural recipe from "grandmere" to sooth and relieve unpleasant symptoms of the common cold. Le champagne chaud!

Yes indeed, hot champagne!

The Recipe:

Pour one class of champagne in a small saucepan 

Add 2 cubes of sugar

Heat until the liquid bubbles (I thought champagne bubbled naturally. . .)

Pour into a cup and let cool

Drink before bed with one or two warm blankets

Explanation: According to Henri Puget, author of the book, "Remèdes de Famille" the patient perspires through the night and wakes up the next morning well on the way to recovery. The champagne supposedly causes a chemical action when mixed (and heated) with the sugar that results in a serious attack on the toxins causing the nasty cold.

Et voila!

Pursuing today's theme, psychiatrist Stéphane Clergget told Figaro Madame magazine for it's last issue of the year that it's important for women to feel "belle."

Hello? Really? Tell us more, Dr. Clergget. . .

"The expression 'what counts is the beauty emanating from the interior,' is false," he said.

"The beauty of the heart and the spirit is inseparable from the body. To worry about one's appearance is essential for one's well-being.

"The time a woman takes to apply her makeup is a source of emotion, meditation and reflection. When a woman takes good care of herself, she 'sends out' a positive image. To make oneself beautiful is fundamentally to make one feel good, to nourish assurance and personal esteem.

"This has nothing to do with egocentrism."

Thank you, Dr. Clergget.

Now I'm off to Paris to partake in some serious self-indulgence that will most certainly make me as beautiful on the inside as on the outside and trigger a serious boost in my self-esteem.