I ticked off another “thing to do before I die” last month when I attended the annual wine-tasting day in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, which was the very image of la belle vie of rural France, apart from the four soldiers with machine guns plus three policemen with handguns. France is swarming with heavily armed guys looking effortlessly cool as they defend us from the country’s endless supply of Islamist crazies, but the national emergency hasn’t affected the spirit of most Frenchmen, who seem as miserable as normal.