The Smoke Clears In Paris

Beginning tomorrow, smoking will be banned in all public restaurants, bars and cafes in Paris, a city where smoking is as much a part of the culture as an addiction.

1 minute read

December 31, 2007, 2:00 PM PST

By Nate Berg

"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."

FULL STORY: Will the smoking ban in France mean the end of café society?

Tuesday, December 18, 2007 in International Herald Tribune

Government / Politics Social / Demographics Europe

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