Cyclist falls down 130-foot ravine in France, survives 3 days by drinking wine he had in shopping bag

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyclist-falls-ravine-survives-days-drinking-wine-france/

484 points · 62 comments · view on lemmy.world

62 Comments

DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 155 pts · 303d (11 replies)

This is the most French title I'll read today. Did he have a baguette too? And, a striped shirt, and beret?

Seriously, glad he's okay.

IcedRaktajino@startrek.website · 60 pts · 303d (2 replies)

The baguette cushioned his fall and the striped shirt scared away any predators. The beret was just a beret, though. Even if you've fallen down a 130ft ravine that's no excuse to look dowdy.

(None of this is true...probably)

tornavish@lemmy.cafe · 20 pts · 303d

The power of the beret protected his head

AbidanYre@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 303d

(None All of this is true...probably definitely)

slothrop@lemmy.ca · 26 pts · 303d (2 replies)

aceshigh@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 303d

Was Waldo French?

artyom@piefed.social · 1 pts · 302d

I think it's supposed to be black and white stripes 😅

dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 303d (1 reply)

It would be peak French if this happened while on the way to a protest.

Furbag@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 302d

With a pit stop at a cafe on the way for a coffee and a cigarette (breakfast).

blave@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 303d

You should read the article. It’s also incredibly French, lol.

Doubleohdonut@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 303d

Jacques Cousteau held his hand while he waited

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 303d

Obviously. Those things are all mandatory over there.

Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 56 pts · 303d (1 reply)

I appreciate the man's priorities: he fell 130 feet and managed to not break the wine bottles.

ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml · 17 pts · 303d

Well, no point wasting good wine lol

dditty@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 48 pts · 303d (5 replies)

In 2023, a woman who went missing for five days in the Australian bushland was found alive after surviving for five days on lollipops and wine.

Yet another reminder to keep a stockpile of food and water in your abodes and cars just-in-case. I haven't been stranded out and about yet, but there was a blizzard a few years ago that I was unprepared for and I nearly ran out of food.

comrade_twisty@feddit.org · 32 pts · 303d (3 replies)

Got stranded in the desert with my mother in law a couple years ago. She didn‘t make it.

I was pretty lucky though as I had quite a bit of meat in the car and survived the ordeal unharmed and in good spirits.

SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · 15 pts · 303d

I'm surprised that it wasn't tough and bitter.

TheRealKuni@piefed.social · 3 pts · 303d

🤣

Minnels@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 303d

You... ate her?

Throbbing_banjo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 11 pts · 303d

Always keep snacks in the cycle bag

khepri@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 303d (13 replies)

I feel like three days isn't enough time to die from the absence of wine, but then again I'm not French.

It's just funny the way the headline is written. I'm assuming they meant more along the lines of "survives 3 days while drinking wine" not "survives 3 days by drinking wine" lol because unless you are starting out extremely dehydrated already, then a 3-day dry fast is absolutely not going to kill you.

workerONE@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 303d (8 replies)

Three to four days is the longest you can survive without water before you die. So he probably would have been dead or close to death without the wine.

Cypher@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 303d (7 replies)
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workerONE@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 303d (6 replies)

Wine will hydrate you.

Cypher@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 303d (2 replies)
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workerONE@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 302d (1 reply)

BBC science News today says it will hydrate you enough to keep you alive. The guy in the news story stayed alive too.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/on-a-desert-island-would-it-be-better-to-drink-wine-or-go-thirsty

artyom@piefed.social · 1 pts · 302d

The guy in the news story stayed alive too.

You're not wrong, but also common knowledge is you can survive 3 days without water.

FishFace@piefed.social · -1 pts · 302d (2 replies)

The threshold for dehydration is about 2% alcohol, so no it won't

workerONE@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 302d (1 reply)

Wine would provide enough hydration to prevent you from dying of thirst.

Source On a desert island, would it be better to drink wine or go thirsty? - BBC Science Focus Magazine https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/on-a-desert-island-would-it-be-better-to-drink-wine-or-go-thirsty

"For the 13 per cent alcohol content of most wines, that equilibrium point would still leave you badly dehydrated (not to mention hopelessly drunk), but it should prevent you from dying of thirst"

Very similar situation to the news story we're commenting on.

FishFace@piefed.social · 1 pts · 302d

Oh, thanks for that, I read different but here's the key thing that I think was missing from the analysis I read:

But the concentration of alcohol required for this increases as you get thirstier. If you just drank wine on your desert island, you would initially lose more water than you gain from wine, but as your body became more dehydrated, it would produce more ADH to compensate and you'd eventually reach an equilibrium point.

pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 303d (3 replies)

??? 3 days without water can definitely be lethal

khepri@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 303d

Well yeah, 10 minutes without water can definitely be lethal under the right circumstances too if you are already only 10 minutes away from dying from dehydration. I'm just saying that lying mostly still in a sunless ravine in autumn in France for 72 hours, while it's raining, is not peak conditions for quick death from dehydration. And in any case, all I'm really saying is that claiming the guy survived by drinking the wine, meaning he would have otherwise died from dehydration, is not a supoortable conclusion and is just there to make the headline more fun.

echodot@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 303d (1 reply)

He wasn't in the Rockies. It was France in October. The issue would have been to stay warm so I don't imagine dehydration was seriously an issue obviously it would have become eventually but not after 3 days.

meco03211@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 302d

Rule of 3s. 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter in inclement weather, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. So it definitely is a concern.

x00z@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 303d (4 replies)

130 foot is almost 40 meters.

n0respect@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 303d (3 replies)

Or about 3 school buses

fleton@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 302d

Or 332 cans of cheese

echodot@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 303d (1 reply)

No you have to use something that doesn't really help anyone understand size because nobody really really knows how big it is. I saw a news article that described a boulder that had fallen from the side of a cliff onto the road as, "a large boulder, the size of three small boulders".

That's almost the size of 95 corgis.

Or you introduce unnecessary macabre

It's the size of two and three quarter elephants

n0respect@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 303d

Oh! So it's the size of a bee swarm in a hurricane. jots notes got it

echodot@feddit.uk · 29 pts · 303d

He has to be the most French person ever.

Everything about this story is totally believable, the fact that a French person would have wine in a shopping bag and that they would choose to transport it via bicycle along a dusty road by a cliff. The French just do not seem to believe in putting up barriers near the edges of large cliffs, you just have to path and then 1 mm of grass and then a drop to the bottom of the world.

crozilla@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 303d

“77-year old alcoholic falls off bike after visiting his dealer.” But seriously, ALWAYS add a bottle of wine when shopping for anything, people. #safetyfirst

riskable@programming.dev · 24 pts · 303d (5 replies)

I think most people would wine and complain after falling into a ravine like that.

ikidd@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 303d (2 replies)

Ahhhh... put a cork in it.

riskable@programming.dev · 4 pts · 303d (1 reply)

Sip happens 🤷

ettyblatant@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 303d

Slip happens!

NutWrench@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 302d

"Should have bought a baguette."

LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 303d

I would only wine if I didn't have cheese to go with it.

Bluewing@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 302d

Wine only? But no mention of Baguette and cigarettes? I don't believe it.

It must not have been a Frenchman. A Quebecois maybe. They would fall of a cliff and only have wine.

MunkyNutts@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 303d

My ass would've just pounded the bottle and said "this is how I go out" within the first hour.

ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 303d

It sounds more like he thrived for three days.

scathliath@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 11 pts · 303d (2 replies)

That's the indomitable human spirit.

Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio · 2 pts · 303d

If you gotta be stuck somewhere, you might as well make the best of it.

buttnugget@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 302d

At 77, that’s amazing!

AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 302d (1 reply)

Did he start drinking after falling down or before???

ArtVandelay@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 301d

He sure did

CluckN@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 303d (3 replies)

How did the wine not dehydrate them?

meco03211@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 303d (1 reply)

Common misconception. Diuretics simply cause you to urinate more often. It does not necessarily mean you will urinate more than the water you are taking in. Coffee also falls into this category. The most known "don't drink this or you'll dehydrate" salt water will cause you to urinate more than the water you take in. Salt water is about 3.5% salt. Your kidneys can only function up to like 2%. This makes your body pull water from elsewhere to flush the excess salt out of your system.

FishFace@piefed.social · -1 pts · 302d

Bullshit!

Tujio@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 303d

It's still a net hydrator.

lightnsfw@reddthat.com · 7 pts · 303d

Me after I'm found at the bottom of a cliff 3 days after I got shitfaced on my grocery store wine and rode off it.

hakunawazo@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 303d

If it would have been somewhere else:

Day one:

Day three:

Tuxman@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 303d

“I BeT tHe cYcliSt rAn tHe ReD LiGHt!”

HurlingDurling@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 301d

That is the most french news headline I have read in a while

Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 302d

Perhaps a shorter pump is the answer.