Yes, come January, smoking will be banned in all restaurants and bars in France. In theory, the ban has been in effect since 1991...a ban except for specified “smoking” areas. Of course the majority of space in each establishment became the smoking area.
It looks like one of the last poignant characteristics of French life is finito. Come January you risk a 75 euro ($107.00 US) fine if you light up over your demi et cognac. This is the first hit. In recent years tobacco taxes have been jacked up 40 percent, bringing a packet to around five euros ($7.00 US), one of the highest on the continent.
“A world is collapsing,” writer Philippe Delerm wrote in a front-page ode to the cigarette in Le Monde newspaper, referring to the alluring image of the chain-smoking intellectual.
Whatever that look, it’s certain that French bars, impregnated with nicotine since Sartre hung out at Les Deux Magots, Giacometti littered Montparnasse with butts, and Gainsbourg’s grave was lined with Gitanes, are rapidly approaching the end of an epoch.
Nearly everyone it seems would like to quit smoking, what has been accepted over the years as a natural element in French life. With the elimination of the smell and stained interiors, the dingy walls and human odors will be questonable replacements.
Is Le Parfum de Cigarettes Air Spray in the works?
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