Smoking ban in a few weeks in restaurants, cafés and so on

[Tony F Dordogne]

Tourangelle, yes it has although it appears that some places took advantage of the one day stay for 1st January whilst others did not.

If the definition of a public place is a public place then to me it should be banned where ever they serve food tho this is current legislation is, I think, aimed at health and safety for staff rather than for fellow diners or drinkers.

[daisymay]

 comment made by a character in a Midsommer Murder the other week "smoking is SO 20th century" Perhaps if teenagers thought like that it would have a positive effect.

[Quillan]

The Tabac was closed this morning but they sell fags next door in the PMU. No difference at all, they were all puffing away as normal. Perhaps they have not heard of the ban.

[Cendrillon]

[quote user="Quillan"]The Tabac was closed this morning but they sell fags next door in the PMU. No difference at all, they were all puffing away as normal. Perhaps they have not heard of the ban.[/quote]

 

They probably think it is one of those EU rules that does not and need not affect them! LOL

[Clair]

Update: first smoking fine

http://www.lyon-webzine.com/societe/tabac-des-cafes-font-de-la-resistance.html

http://www.come4news.com/

http://afp.google.com/

links repaired

[Cendrillon]

Obviously the Bistrot 203 is a place to be avoided for the time being!

No doubt they will conform in time.

[Georgina]

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080103/CPINSOLITE/80103085/5406/CPINSOLITE

 

Could not get that one Clair but here is a tabac giving customers jackets to go outside.  Well that helps with advertising the business I suppose.  It could catch on.  !!!![:D]

Georgina

[londoneye]

Ah bless, the low-tech version of the outdoor patio heater perhaps ?

I do feel a bit sorry for the small bars; there are several around here which practically edge onto the road, with no chance of putting tables outside even in the summer, and I think these really will lose a lot of business.   I smoke and I am surely not going to stand in the road, if I can sit outside at a table elsewhere.

Not that I particularly care about the ban to be honest; don't go out that much, and at the end of the day I drink as well, but have managed to cope with going to a bar and not drinking if I am going to drive, so I can't see it can be that difficult.      But maybe I will feel differently next time I go out !

[TWINKLE]

I went out for an aperitif last night and the first local bar I walked into the owner was in the middle of stubbing out his cigarette at the bar. 

There was one other man there and I noticed 3 ashtrays on the bar.  I know the owner quite well and so asked him what he thought of the ban.  He indicated the ashtrays and smiled.  He said that he was leaving it up to the customers to decide.  He said that most people chose to go outside but a few were taking the risk of lighting up at the bar.  I asked him if he was worried about getting fined and he explained that he prefered a few fines than having lots of people outside the café smoking and talking and disturbing the surrounding neighbours who in the past have called the police when things got a bit rowdy.  If they complain he gets an order to close down the café.  However, I'm not sure if the same will happen anyway if he keeps getting fined for breaking the new law.

 

The next café I went into,  which is on the main avenue of the village was smoke free and people were going outside for a puff and nobody seemed to be complaining.  There were children playing in the café and everybody remarked on how clear and bright the café was without the usual cloud of smoke. 

The café was as packed as it usually is on a Friday night and the owner was happy 'cos' everyone was 'stuck' there as a police control had set up a little further up the road.  People were joking to the owner that he had deliberately called the cops so that he could keep the customers there longer for the apèro!

 

Only in France[:)]

[Frederick]

I read that the gazebos and other covered areas outside  bars are now considered good places to meet the opposite sex. Being forced to go outside  puts people together with a common interest and encourages couples to chat ......so are you popping out for a fag.... or to see who is in the "dating area "  ?

[Gardian]

[quote user="Frederick"]I read that the gazebos and other covered areas outside  bars are now considered good places to meet the opposite sex. [/quote]

I must remember to drop by the Bar du Midi tomorrow and see what opportunities turn up!

However, I might just have a pastis and a smoke inside.  Risky though - the local Gendarmerie always come by heavy-handed every morning.  It takes at least two of them to carry away all the croissants, pain au raisins etc that they pillage from the boulangerie.  

[Meg]

While i was back in the UK, at a pub, the bloke sitting next to me went out for a fag, and came back in a bit beaten up!  (This was only lunchtime....)

The French are just more romantic i guess......!!

[TWINKLE]

Oi!

You lot had better abide by the new law otherwise who the hell will?

Gardian!   I am shocked[:-))]

(Imagine full grown fairy falling over in shock!)

[Tresco]

[quote user="TWINKLE"]...(Imagine full grown fairy falling over in shock!)[/quote]

It's another good thing to come out of this ban. All us smokers (sorry everyone) are enjoying seeing fairies swooning everywhere.[:)]

[TWINKLE]

 

Ouch!

[TWINKLE]

OUCH!!!

[Frenchie]

[quote user="Frederick"]I read that the gazebos and other covered areas outside  bars are now considered good places to meet the opposite sex. Being forced to go outside  puts people together with a common interest and encourages couples to chat ......so are you popping out for a fag.... or to see who is in the "dating area "  ?[/quote]

Just the same in England ... lol.. on last wednesday I was sitting outside a pub, at about 5 pm, not smoking, just waiting for my partner to come and collect me, ( I had been shopping , he needed to do something else)  ..

Some people, men and women, were regularly coming out to smoke ..  As I was early, I stayed there for a while. I noticed they were starting to chat pleasantly..  Then a man told me " You ve been here for quite a while.. it s bl*ody freezing, why don't you come in and have a drink inside? "  I said no, thanks,  I was waiting for my partner bla bla..    Then another man said " Hey luv , come in, it s a friendly place here, etc .." then , inevitably " where are you from ? oooh France ... I am Mike ... bla bla bla... "  In the meantime, another woman was out to smoke and inevitably a couple of minutes after she had men talking to her..    lol

And I thought .. " Flippin heck, this will replace speed dating !!" [:D][:D][:D]

[Quillan]

Actually I saw the same program, they were talking about the UK.

It seems that young non smokers are being left in out of the draught but in the cold. They go down the pub with their mates but their mates smoke. The smokers go out for a cig and start chatting up the girls who are also outside for a smoke. The non smoker feels excluded and is often left on their own. The program implied that smoking outside pubs is THE place to pickup a date. There is an official new word for this which I can't remember but if somebody saw the same program as me they might remember. It's not a joke apparently.

In the meantime in central London people are complaining because more people are smoking on the street and non smokers are having to wear scarfs or face masks to avoid the smoke. My daughter, who hates smoking with a vengeance, does not go to the pub anymore because she does not like to have to run the gauntlet of the smokers in front of the entrance.

[londoneye]

Sorry Quillan but thats so funny (not for your daughter of course).   The idea that a non-smoker now won't go in a pub because they have to walk past the smokers.     No pleasing some is there.   Or is she being harassed by the blokes hanging around outside, thats a different story and the pub needs to control it if its the case.

 

[cooperlola]

We are a seriously scary bunch, Londoneye!

[Bugsy]

Anyone remember the Two Ronnies 'superior class' sketch with John Cleese........................[:)]

[Frenchie]

Please explain a poor Frenchie what it was ... [:$]  [;-)]

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Bugbear"]Anyone remember the Two Ronnies 'superior class' sketch with John Cleese........................[:)][/quote]Wonderful.  I think it was on one of the TW3 spin off programmes, Bugs.

[cooperlola]

THE FROST REPORT

[Bugsy]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MgA4K-bnwh0&feature=related

[:D][:D]