Earthquake survivors are drinking a different kind of French beverage - clean water - but, for the people of Tongji, it is more welcome than the finest champagne.
Aquassistance, a humanitarian association formed by volunteers from the French utilities company Suez Group, has just turned on the taps for people still living in the mountain town after the disaster.
A few weeks ago, mainlanders were calling for a boycott of French products and protesting outside stores of the Carrefour chain. They were angry about disruptions to the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay and French President Nicolas Sarkozy's possible boycott of the Games opening ceremony.
But the earthquake has pushed politics aside. China has accepted Euro380,000 (HK$4.61 million) in assistance from the French government. Carrefour has donated 23 million yuan (HK$25.89 million) as well as 1.2 million yuan worth of goods.
'This is exactly the time to show [Chinese] people and the government that we are with them,' said Laura Sun, executive vice-president of Sino-French Water Development, a venture between Suez and Hong Kong's New World group.
People gawked as two foreign engineers set up a 10,000 litre reservoir for water from a well, added chlorine and improved a network of pipes to deliver the resource for drinking and cooking.