La Belle Èpoque
"La belle époque" approximately translates to ”The Beautiful Era” and if you are interested in absinthe, chances are that you will stumble over this phrase quite often. It´s the period between the end of the Franco-Prussian War (year 1871) and the beginning of the First World War (1914). During this time a lot of good shit happened, there were technological, scientific, cultural and medical innovations and the economy prospered. People was enjoying the peace, had a feeling of affinity, hope for the future and a general optimism reigned. Especially technological advancements were celebrated and people felt that this was what would save the world. We developed film from photography, got smaller and lighter engines which made it possible to develop motorcycles, cars and later the airplane. A marvelous time indeed!
This was also really the time to be alive for any artist, creativity flourished and many great works of art was born during this time. And it was largely thanks to these creative gentlemen and ladies that absinthe gained even more popularity, the absinthe effect let them work even when drunk and is said to have inspired many great works of art. Hence absinthe gained its nickname ”The Green Muse”. There was an opposition that tried to get rid of the absinthe (indeed all alcohol), as you well know. But before the eventual ban, absinthe became a symbol of freedom, a way to rebell towards the ones that wanted to take away their right to alcohol
But as all things under the sun, this era of optimism ended, and it ended pretty brutally. One of the mightiest creations so far, the Titanic, was a living proof of technology´s triumph over nature, but it sank on its maiden voyage and thousands of people died. It showed that the wonders of man, no matter its splender, still was no match for the power of nature. Only two years later, 1914, the Great War came to Europe. Now, the technological wonders we had wrought to further human development was insted used to more effectively kill our fellow man in the greatest war in modern time.
Shortly after WWI we seemed to surpass our own cruelty and a second world war took its place. The so well felt optimism of the Belle Epoque never came back after that. Instead we started to talk about the old Europe, about the time before the wars, nazism and fascism, and somewhere in the shards of the past we remembered the emerald drink called absinthe, its place in the French society and the freedom it stod for.