The “French Paradox” also played into this. We love the idea that some group of special people have had all this figured out for centuries and if we just follow their traditional ways, we’ll live forever. But if they happen to exhibit longevity, it’s more often genetics or other factors besides something we desperately want to believe, like booze is healthy. I wonder if the French Paradox was amplified by the oldest person in the world being, for years, a French woman who smoked like a chimney.

That's funny in a really dark way