*Chanoine (Canon) Felix Kir (1870–1968) represented everything that was best in the French nation: native Burgundian, gourmet among gourmets, and spiritual advisor to thousands, this Catholic priest of great longevity was a resistance fighter during the war who was saved from a Gestapo firing squad only because hostilities ended before they could carry out the sentence. Elected mayor of Dijon and deputy in the national parliament, he systematically offered visitors to his office a cocktail of two-thirds Aligoté white wine and one-third cassis (black currant) syrup. Today the proportions have shifted toward much more wine and much less syrup (the same kind of route taken by the dry martini, originally two parts gin to one of vermouth), but the good father’s drink, the kir, lingers on in just about every corner of the world.