Coffee & Cigarettes

Non fumer!

It seems that France has decided to follow the example set by Ireland in setting a date for a public smoking ban. From next February, smoking will be banned in airports, railway stations, schools, universities and offices throughout France. However, the traditional French breakfast of coffee and cigarettes will survive for a further year, as smoking in bars, restaurants and clubs will be banned from February 2008. In order to set an example, the tobacco kiosk in the parliament will cease selling cigarettes from the end of this year, according to health minister Xavier Bertrand, quoted in Le Journal du Dimanche. Quite how a public smoking ban will go down in a country where chain-smoking took on an air of cool, and whose citizenry have a healthy disrespect for imposed rules, is anybody's guess.