The main problem with environmentally responsible living is that it’s so, well, responsible. (Read tedious. Dull. Fundamentally un-French.)

Try telling the average Frenchman he must convert to organically-produced wine and forever renounce foie-gras out of regard for ducks’ health, and you will no doubt be greeted with a great, gallic snort, followed by the inevitable question, which in itself sums up centuries of French fatalism : « mais à quoi bon tout ça ? »

What for indeed? What difference can a single individual make when hundreds of environment ministers and earnest NGO leaders gathered at Copenhaguen failed to reach even one significant decision to fight climate change?

It’s a fair question, but it doesn’t change the disturbing evidence of the damage our modern lifestyle is inflicting on our planet. And as any self-respecting French union leader will tell you : there’s nothing like grassroots mobilization – preferably in the shape of a good, long strike – to trigger political action at the top. Meanwhile, the sum of many small gestures could one day lead to big decisions.

For the famously epicurean French (or French at heart), the dilemna boils down to one question : how can I contribute to collective environmental efforts without (much) giving up the eco-guilty pleasures that make life worth living?

If such is your concern, then join Green vingt-quatre’s quest for green solutions, à la française.