[Rainey]

Oh dear! La loi de la voile doesn't appear to have been controversial enough. France is about to ban smoking in restaurants. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/08/#000301

I hope we'll get to hear how this works out. And if anyone there wants some reassurance, in California it's been a very positive thing and has spread throughout a lot of the US.

We can be trés stupide, I confess. But this is an area that I think works.
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God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

[Debbie]

This law was apparently brought in during the 1960's in France..... but has never been enforced.

We are actually wondering how it will be enforced when even the chef and the wait staff smoke while serving and cooking!

Went to a cafe today with a friend from Sydney and he was apalled to see the barman making coffees with a cigarette in one hand the whole time. I thought he was going to have a heart attack when the barman walked over to serve us with the drinks on a tray and cigarette hanging out of his mouth with the ash hanging dangerously close to one of the cups.....

I don't like smoking in eating establishments, but have to say that I am no longer suprised by it now. It was actually strange to eat in places that banned smoking while back in Australia... we kept looking around expecting someone to light up. Amazing what you become accustomed to!
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If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

[Zoe]

I'll move to France, seriously! Or Ireland, or wherever.

Really, if only we could import these laws here - and have them enforced, while we're at it. You can't go out anywhere in Israel - including hospitals - without being smoked on. Restaurants, cafes etc. are supposed to have a separate smoking area but obviously you can't keep the smoke out of the air - and the smokers get the best tables! This is just wrong.

Gingerpale, was it hard for you to quit? What made you decide to go for it?

[Erin]

Health risks aside, why would anyone want to smoke around food? It degrades the senses and ruins the experience. I hope it works out.
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"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[Debbie]

I too used to smoke.... nasty habit, but we each develop a habit that others object to in our lifetimes.

I agree that a fabulous meal is ruined when the person sitting beside you is puffing like a chimney. You cannot smell the aromas of the food and that (to me) is a huge part of the flavour.

Personally I cannot wait till they enforce it in France... but I am not holding my breath as the laws have been around in France for 40 years already without any success...

I have also been annoyed that in the few non smoking areas in restos here, they are in bad spots and the smokers have the best tables. It is also a bit silly of the restos to not expect the smoke to waft into all areas.... especially when you look into the kitchen and the chef is smoking too!!!! Yuck!
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If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

[gingerpale]

Zoe, yes it was hard to quit but not impossible, and my self-discipline is a joke. I also had a bad chest cold at the time which helped because one cigarette set off half-an-hour of coughing! (I started smoking in Israel, that cheap "Nadiv" brand!)

I quit because it got to be ridiculously expensive, one could no longer relax with a cigarette (like in a restaurant, on a break at work) smokers were put outside, soon we were a minority.

I was a devoted smoker, before any task, first have a cigarette--
then, mop the floor. Midway through, cigarette break!
Finished task, sit down, have cigarette, admire floor. It really cuts into your life. The Internet is good for you, isn't it?

[Chicago Bear]

Since the summer, we also have a smoking ban in Chicago restaurants, but because of the force of our local and ethnic politics, the ordinance is a little quirky. Restaurants with smoking areas in or around bars are allowed to continue through a transition period which will probably end when the last person who wants to pick up a cigarette finally expires. French restaurants and French people are exempt, comme toujour. Greeks are exempt, but only in Greek restaurants. Greeks will not be permitted to smoke in French restaurants. Australians can smoke, but only after their second beer. This is not considered a hardship.
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The goal is to fit it all in.

[simona]

I don't know, I'm a litle bit ambivalent about this anti-smoking crusade in Restaurants. I am in favour of separate areas, and I would choose the non smoking one. But I can understand the pleasure of a good cigarette/cigar/cigarillo after a good dinner. I never smoked, but once in a while , after a good dinner and when in good company I like a cigarillo with my wine/cognac. And I like the smell of cigars .
So people should be allowed to enjoy their cigarette in a separate part of the restaurant.
But I'm really happy that smoking is prohibited in airplanes.
I will miss the smoky athmosphere of french restaurants.

No more war ( only war on smokers???)

[gingerpale]

You're a rare bird, Simona--if cigarettes could be enjoyed once in a while, and then forgotten for a week or two, it would be lovely.

I don't think they'll ever be able to do away with any substance that makes people feel good.

[Judy]

We've had smoking bans in restaurants and pubs for quite a few years here in Adelaide. I was surprised to read that it's still allowed in Sydney, Debbie. I think I would have just walked out of that cafe. I'm afraid I take it as a personal insult if anyone near me smokes while I'm eating or drinking.

But what I really really don't get is the number of my workmates who smoke. I'm an oncology RN and a reasonable percentage of our patients would have smoking-related cancers.

I guess they either don't think about it, or it's a very powerful addiction.

Nice to see you back here Erin
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Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

www.cupcakerecipebook.com.au

[madameshawshank]

Jude Darling...we tend to not face our own addictions...a difficult task..

ask me to give up anything with yeast...as in pastries, bread etc...and I'll say to thee "I don't think so!"

~ I realise yeast isn't cigarettes..however I think both the owning of, and dealing with, an addiction is a challenging task.

I've had one puff of a cigarette...mid-teens...my friends had to put my face in a tub of water...not much fun...I thought my whole body was full of smoke...
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[charlsy]

Rainey, actually it's not smoking in restaurants but in all public places that is about to be banned. Well, maybe ! We already have a law prohibiting smoking in public areas, but restaurants, bars and such have the possibility to still have smoking and non-smoking sections.
Needless to say, it's hellish to enforce ! When you have only one room, you need a powerful ventilation system to prevent the smoke from meandering to the noses of non smokers ! And as a true non-smoker myself (never started, best way not to have to quit !), I can tell you, smoke always finds the non-smoking nose !
My sister has a small bar-restaurant in the country, and I can tell you, if soking gets banned, she'll have to close ! 99% of her customers are smokers ! And I can tell you that the presence of children, even babies, stopped no one from smoking, not even the mothers. I worked there over a weekend, I was the only adult no puffing away ! I woke up the next day smelling like an ashtray, with a pounding headache.
I personaly can not understand how you can deliberatly ruin the flavors of a meal by smoking, but think the law should offer the possibility for restaurants who so desire to have a smoking section, or choose to be only smoking, but warn customers. But here we usually go the "everything or nothing" way, so it will be next to impossible to put in effect. We tend to have this idea that freedom is everything, so smokers love their right to poison themselves. Forgetting sometimes along the way that their addiction can bother, and sometimes grieviously harm the others around.

[Debbie]

Sorry for the confusion Judy. The bar was here in France. Our friend is from Sydney.

If it had been in Sydney there would have been health inspectors fining them before the first exhalation I think! :lol

Agree with the comment that most of the restos/bars in France would close if they ban smoking.... we are usually the only ones in there not smoking. I still cringe when I see people kissing babies and interacting with them while blowing smoke into their faces.... but that is the way it seems to be here. I might not like it, but who am I to change hundreds of years of habit? If they want to smoke, then it is their right to smoke. I just do my own thing and quietly wish they would stop for their own health and that of others.
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If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

[Judy]

Oops, yes Debbie, I realised I had misread it.

You're back in Paris already?
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Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

www.cupcakerecipebook.com.au

[charlsy]

Oh, and don't forget we do have a really powerful tobacco-sellers lobby, who are complaining that the continuing rise of cigarette prices are bad for their business... People do buy a little less cigarettes... or go to border areas and cross into neighboring countries where taxes are lighter. Poor dears... Such hardship, dealing in a lethal substance that kills half its consumers every year... They really need all the help they can get...