Wednesday, January 02 2008
By Angelique Chrisafis
(
The Guardian UK)
Like Asterix's village holding out against the Romans, for years France proudly resisted the global craze for smoking bans. It held out longer than Britain, Spain or Italy, but on Tuesday it finally bid au revoir to cigarettes in bars, cafes, restaurants and clubs.
This was not a decision taken lightly. Magazines ran nostalgic photo-spreads reminding us that French people look seriously cool with a fag in their mouth - as illustrated by Charles de Gaulle, Brigitte Bardot and the ambassador for nicotine-enhanced thinking, Jean-Paul Sartre. Even president Nicolas Sarkozy, painfully image-conscious, posed for Paris Match wrestling with a fat cigar.
Article continues here...
