The Smoke Clears In Paris

"Less than one year after France imposed a nationwide ban on smoking in most public places (including hospitals, schools and offices), it will extend the ban to bars, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs - and the most cherished of all spaces: the café."

"Though smoking in outdoor seating areas will still be allowed, the option doesn't appeal to everyone.'

"While many smokers find the ban in cafés unthinkable, polls show that 66 percent of the usually feisty French support the law and those who don't have mustered little resistance. Coming on the heels of Starbucks and Sarkozy, smoke-free Parisian cafés are perhaps the latest indication of a country slowly shedding its traditional skin - albeit not without anguish."

"'All my customers smoke, all my employees smoke. What are we going to do?' wondered Olivier Colombe, 43, owner of Parisian cafés Le Panier and Le Faitout."