Hip-Hip-Hurrah! No smoking in Paris!

I see people smoking and running back into doors.

I don't know about pneumonia, but I know a couple of people who developed a bronchitis after going from a warm, humid indoor club environment out into the cold to smoke.

With the recent colder weather, I haven't seen that many people outside smoking lately--or if they do, they don't tend to linger.

HUMMMM I wonder whether or not the rate of pneumonia has increased.

I wonder if a study will ever be done someplace where it's REALLY cold about whether or not smoking goes down with the temperature. ???

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Like upstate NY!:) I don't think it's made a difference here...you see people huddled in sub-zero temperatures puffing away.

I have to laugh. I'm friends with some dedicated smokers. I'm considering bringing something to read since they definitely go outside between courses in order to light up.

I wonder if a study will ever be done someplace where it's REALLY cold about whether or not smoking goes down with the temperature. ???

The results of the smoking ban have been interesting. It's much more pleasant to dine in a smoke-free restaurant (especially small ones where the smoke was overwhelming in the past), but now you take your chances when sitting at the tables outside. Even walking past a café terrasse you can get a big lungful of smoke.

Interestingly, it's also changed some people's parking habits because if you park in front of a restaurant or bar, chances are that during the evening smokers will be sitting or leaning on your car when they're outside smoking.

Socially it changes things a little too, as the smokers often find themselves standing outside with a different bunch of people than they normally might be around.

If you're a smoker, do you find the smoking ban inconvenient?
If you're a nonsmoker, do you find that it makes a difference for you?

I am delighted over the no smoking ban~

http://www.bonjourparis.com/Articles/Ask_K...enews_20080113/


As a former addict, I won't be tempted by the people lighting up at the adjoining table.

Lasr night at dinner, three people sitting at a table next to us got up after they ordered and went outside to smoke then came back in when their first course was delivered.

Stacy

Thank you so much for the link. I just read the article. I am positively delighted. As a result, I am looking forward to going to Paris much more often!

Indeed, and this morning as I was out and about I saw some stand-type ashtrays outside the doorways of cafés and tabacs, also chairs and tables on the terrasses in spite of the cold...

Here's an article reporting on how it's going so far (in French only, sorry!): L'interdiction de la cigarette bien respectée en France

We noticed yesterday, as we walked around, that many cafes had posted non-smoking signs in the windows where they had not appeared before.

No, it's not allowed in the tabacs. Actually I should have said tabacs rather than cafés in my comment earlier, because that's such a huge part of the culture for so many French smokers: They go to the nearby tabacs to buy their cigarettes and smoke while they have their coffee. One of the arguments against the new law was that it would put a lot of the tabacs out of business because people wouldn't be able to go there and do that anymore.

Mara and Ellen

I have had the same experience at restaurants such as L'Orangerie, Le Violin d'Ingres, Le Grand Vefour. There was smoking at the table right next to our non-smoking table! In one case 4 out of 4 people at the table were smoking, and one of the women puffed away in between hacking coughs!

I agree that the smoking prevalence is greater and intolerable in Greece and in Turkey. The smoke permeated the dining rooms and the lobbies to the extent that I could even taste it in my mouth!!!

We wondered the same thing when New York instituted the ban. I could be wrong, but I don't think it had much, if any, negative financial impact.

I'm not clear whether or not smoking will be permitted in tabacs. I can't imagine some people foregoing a cigarette as they swig down a coffee.

They'll still be allowed to smoke on the café terrasses, though, which as a nonsmoker I admit I've never appreciated; it kind of takes away from the enjoyment of sitting in out in the fresh air when you get smoke blowing in your face from the tables nearby.

I know a few people who have quit smoking in anticipation of the ban. People in general seem much more accepting of it this time than they were for the previous failed attempt back in the 1990s. It will be interesting to see how it plays out economically for the cafés.

Mara, that bothers me, too. I doubt that the ban will be easy for the French, but I'm looking forward to it. The worst I've seen,though, was in the Balkans. Both cigarettes and cigars in restaurants and all other public places. For a non-smoker, it was really difficult.

I hope it works out - on my past couple of visits to Paris, I found the smoking to bother me a lot. A couple of times I asked for a non-smoking table and next to me, barely inches away, was a smoking table. Oy!

One of the reasons I like to rent an apartment is that it's a non-smoking area!

Happy Holidays to everyone and I'm glad to see the DB back up...

Mary.......In the US of A we are probably the non-smokingest of nations and even proselytize non-smoking as if on a mission. If this has come to pass I would venture to say it can happen anywhere....even France.

Today's NY Times has an article on a new law going into effect on Wednesday, January 2: No smoking in cafés,
restaurants, bars and nightclubs in addition to the law already in place against smoking in public buildings (government buildings, schools, hospitals, etc.).

Will the French resist or even just ignore the new ban????

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/...l?th&emc=th