French set for culture shock as smoking ban looms
The smoky café, essence of the French lifestyle to many, will be but a hazy memory from next week.
The extension of France's smoking ban to bars, discotheques, restaurants, hotels, casinos and cafes on January 1 marks a momentous cultural shift in a country where thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir once held court while clutching cigarettes in Left Bank cafes.
For smokers, this is the most distressing part of a phased smoking ban that began last February in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other "closed and covered" public places like train stations.
Just about anywhere indoors will be off-limits for smoking, except homes, hotel rooms, and sealed smoking chambers at establishments that decide to provide them.
The Health Ministry says one in two regular smokers dies of smoking-related illness, and about 5,000 non-smokers die each year of passive smoking. About a quarter of France's 60 million people are smokers.
Many restaurateurs, café owners and disco operators fear lost business: Smokers who light up with a countertop morning coffee, on the dance floor or after a meal make up a huge customer base.
A national union of disco owners has said it expects up to an 8% decline in business initially, and has urged the government to send pamphlets to police to show "understanding" in their enforcement of the ban.
Some 10,000 protesters, mainly tobacco vendors, marched across Paris last month in an unsuccessful attempt to convince lawmakers to add flexibility to the new prohibitions.
In a minor concession, the government says it will not fully enforce the new ban on New Year's Day - giving smokers the right to puff away until January 2.
