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Brigitte Bardot relaxed barefoot on the beach in Saint-Tropez, drawing a sloppy puff from her cigarette. Another actor, Jean Paul Belmond swept Champion Elises, as smoke curled from his rebellious lips, captured the restless rebellion of a generation.
In France, cigarettes were never the only thing. Film statements, cheating and rebellion were wrapped in rolling paper.
However, starting from July 1, if Bardo and Belmond’s iconic film scenes are repeated in real life, they will be subject to a fine of up to 135 euros ($153).
After decades of making cigarettes attractive, France is still preparing for the most drastic smoking ban. The new restrictions announced by Health Minister Katherine Vaultlin will prohibit smoking in almost any outdoor public area where children gather, including beaches, parks, gardens, playgrounds, sports venues, school entrances and bus stops.
“Cigarettes must disappear where there are children,” Vaultlin told French media. Freedom of smoking “stops where the child’s right to breathe clean air begins.”
If Vautrin’s law reflects public health priorities, it also indicates deeper cultural change. Smoking has defined identity, fashion and cinema here for a very long time, so the new measures feel like a quiet French revolution in a country famous for its relationship with cigarettes.
According to the French League for Cancer, more than 90% of French films from 2015 to 2019 featured smoking scenes. This is more than twice as much as Hollywood Productions. Each French film averaged 3 minutes of on-screen smoking, effectively the same exposure as six 30-second TV ads.
The film is particularly influential. Belmondo’s rebellious smoker in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” has become a shorthand for youthful rebellion around the world. Bardot’s cigarette smoke drifts through “and the woman created by God,” and symbolizes unlimited sensuality.
But this appeal brings results. French public health officials say about 75,000 people die from tobacco-related illnesses each year. Smoking rates have been declining recently, but under 25% of French adults smoke daily, a historic low, but habits remain stubbornly embedded, especially among young people and urban chic.
The relationship between France and tobacco has long been full of contradictions. Air France did not ban smoking on all flights until 2000, years after major US airlines were phased out in the late 1980s and early 90s. The delay reflected the country more late, even at 35,000 feet, to cut off cultural romance with cigarettes.
Walking through the stylish streets of LeMallée, Paris’ most prevalent region, the reaction to smoking bans ranged from practical acceptance to nostalgic rebellion.
At a joint press conference on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron suspended President Donald Trump and made it clear that “we provided real money.”
“It’s time. We don’t want our kids to grow up thinking the smoke is romantic,” says Clemens Laurent, a 34-year-old fashion buyer, sipping espresso on the terrace of a crowded cafe. “Indeed, Bardo made his cigarette look attractive, but Bardo didn’t worry about today’s warning about lung cancer.”
At a nearby boutique, 53-year-old vintage dealer Lookboley saw the ban essentially as an attack on French. “Smoking has always been a part of our culture. What did we leave behind by taking away the cigarettes? Kale smoothie?” he scrunched.
Across him, 72-year-old Jeanne Lévy chuckled in her throat, her voice etched deeply – she said – by decades of Gaurrose. “I smoked the first cigarette looking at Jeanne Moreau,” she confessed, her eyes sparkling behind her vintage sunglasses. “It was her voice – smoky, sexy, living. Who doesn’t want that voice?”
Certainly, Jeanne Moreau’s gravel nicotine-covered voice transformed cigarettes into poetry itself, and became immortal in classics such as François Truffaut’s “Jours et Gymes.” Smoking has acquired an existential charm that has ceased to stop the unimaginable generations of French smokers.
New French laws reflect broader European trends. The UK, Spain and Sweden all implement important smoking bans in public spaces. Sweden banned smoking in outdoor restaurant terraces, bus stops and schoolyards in 2019. Spain has expanded its ban to the cafe’s terrace.
At Paris Park Place de Boges, literature student Thomas Bouchard was still exempt from the new ban and clutched a shrugful e-cigarette.
“Maybe Vaping is our compromise,” he said. “It’s probably a little less sexy, but there’s less wrinkles.”
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