Ballad of the Sad Cafes

An article would never mourn the decline of smoking in America. This is simply misplaced nostalgia for a tourism experience that Americans desire when they visit France. But the lung cancer and other health problems caused by smoking in France have been as real as anywhere else. France also had one of Europe's worst drunk-driving problems in the post-war years -- due to a culture of heavy per-capita wine-consumption that was not necessarily combined with meals (as in Italy). So these trends toward healthier, more responsible living shouldn't be mourned. They are evidence of a society changing and waking up to habits that have been destructive in many ways. We don't mourn these changes in America. Why should we in France? There's more to being French than drinking Moet and smoking Gauloises...

It seems that the French are losing their time outs to relax and be social. Getting people to stop smoking and reducing their alcohol intake bring lifestyle changes which result in less socializing. On the other hand we are told that socializing is crucial to well being. Modern lifestyles are too hectic and too noisy. The French will find themselves subject to more stress as they lose this aspect of their lives.

Your article is elegant, captures the spirit of the moment and sublimely pulls out the truth from its shadowed conrner
and brings it into a painful stark light, for all to see. I live in France and I see and feel and hear what yo are talking about.
I was so saddend to see a little restaurant close near by me that had once been a staple of my quartier...it gave me such a melancholy tha I wanted to cry and move away, I even had to discuss it with neighbors to try to make myself feel a little better. Sometimes it seems as if the degeneration of everything will only accelerate. The people that I had created in my mind through its literature and poetry and cinema and then ultimately through living here is slowly fading away..being replaced by something so generic...it makes me plain depressed. But Vive La France, even though I am not French myself I have adopted this country and I love her. She is still in my heart the dazzling darling of Europe, Marianne beaming a beaty so great that even in her rags and through her misery we are captured by her, holding a torch of light and hope for all to see...

Nobody in Europe smoked cigarettes in the 19th century. Cigarettes became the rage of the flapper era in the Twenties and were popularized by the the smoking Hollywood movie stars.

Did the Frenchy were never introduced to chewing tobacco. They'll have to spit it on the street, and enjoy a nice day at there favorite bistro, A good cup of expresso coffee, and a freshly baked brioche. And don't forget a copy of Le Monde.

Did the Frenchy was never introduced to chewing tobacco. Spit it on the side walk and enjoy your bistro expresso and the warmth of a freshly baked brioche.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo smoking?
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!

I enjoy the rich aroma of fine pipe tobacco...doesn't smell obnoxious to me. In fact cigarette smoke smells good to me, too...not as good as fine pipe tobacco, though. I do not smoke, but I have no right to mandate my choices on other people who choose to smoke. People in the welding profession ought to quit their jobs...welding fumes are far more smelly, obnoxious, and dangerous to health than tobacco....everyone should quit their jobs and leave their modes of transportation sit idle...exhaust fumes are obnoxiously dangerous yet nobody gripes about it much...we gotta get to work somehow,right? Of course, I am giving off fumes of sarcasm in this post...I think people make too much out of smoking when so many other things are more dangerous to us. One of the most dangerous things we can do as human beings is exclude people out of our lives because we feel a need to mandate on others what we personally do or don't do. Another dangerous thing to get caught up in is to be a habitual complainer...after a while people will tune you out.

My good fortune was to be in Paris on the Left Bank - the seventh and the fifth for my 39th birthday in 1987 while working. It was the year Jules Verne opened and a beautiful South African working in television was my accomplice. We created a ruse of wanting a drink in the restaurant as it opened at 5:00 pm. They were fully booked for months and highly defended against interlopers seeking dinner. Suzy was blond and wore black leather with red lipstick and by doing so matched their decor. The staff found us a table for dinner once they saw her. We smoked, drank and fell in love in that way that although we have not spent our lives together - neither of us will ever forget Paris in August. Banality is the cruelest reward for a place that the world has worshiped for its efforts and gifts regardless of the price. To have lived seventy years well and to have been a part of French cafe society well exceeds the decades longer in rest homes intended by the well-meaning government. Amnesia in old age will be unnecessary soon, as there will be little to remember. The well meaning will go to their graves never understanding any of what they have missed or destroyed.

I think these bans have been a long time coming, for too long cigarettes have been romanticized in places like this and I hope society will slowly come to realize more and more that cigarettes are not romantic or glamourous, they are horribly smelly and obnoxious.

Don't need a reason to search? Smacks of totalitarianism...at least have a valid reason to search...not because you have a "gut feeling." Now, does my post give law enforcement a valid reason to follow me around wherever I go?; simply because I know there should be a valid reason for searching people?
In fact I was unjustly harassed by a local police officer in my home town...without a valid reason. I happened to witness a scuffle in a Wal-Mart parking lot...the officer asked me if I wished to fill out a report...I complied and agreed to do so. As I was writing out my statement of what I saw, the officer decided to start bumping my arm as I was trying to fill out the report. I thought I was doing the right thing by doing such a thing...but, evidently, the officer took offense to me for some reason...he had no right to do this kind of childish crap to me or to anyone else for that matter. I guess I have learned my lesson...if they ask me to do anything, forget it...nobody should have to experience crapolla such as this.

Alas, sadly the ban on smoking in Parisian street-side cafes pronounces the death of yet another opulent culture that was the pride of "living it up' mantra of the early and mid-1099s. Paris, in fact, defined the cool, indulgent life-style of the western world. If the cafes want to survive, they will have to redefine what they have to offer to its patrons. Reinvent and then reassure the passersby that the Parisian cafes are still what they used to be -- good hang-out places, but with a difference. Kanan Divecha, Mumbai, India


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It appears the people who hate freedom have found a majority on the Supreme Court. Thanks for the gift that keeps on giving dubya! As if that jaggoff hadn't done enough to trample the constitution, his lackeys ruled today that the police don't actually need a reason to search you, it's enough if they think they might have a good reason. They won't be happy until they've trashed every last word in the constitution except the second ammendment. PLEASE PEOPLE, study nazi germany, and explain to me why you fight so hard to create a police state.

Maybe we should all quit our jobs because the vehicles we drive spew plenty of toxic fumes to kill each other off...yeah, let's ban driving vehicles, flying planes, riding motorbikes, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

I find it absurd that smokers feel they have any rights whatsoever when millions of people die from second hand smoke. It would be one thing if it was only affecting you and no one else, but why should I have to be disturbed by your addiction? That's as if I were an alcoholic and made everyone else around me drink the same amount of alcohol I did and whenever I wanted!! Smoking is poison!! It stinks, it effects your lungs and your immune system not to mention causing cancer. If it didn't make so much money if would've been made illegal a long time ago!! And if smokers were more thoughtful of how they effect others, they might not have all of these strict rules now as well. It's a nasty habit that is bad for you and everyone around you and it's not fair to the rest of us who have to breathe it and smell it because YOU have an addiction

I find it absurd that smokers feel they have any rights whatsoever when millions of people die from second hand smoke. It would be one thing if it was only affecting you and no one else, but why should I have to be disturbed by your addiction? That's as if I were an alcoholic and made everyone else around me drink the same amount of alcohol I did and whenever I wanted!! Smoking is poison!! It stinks, it effects your lungs and your immune system not to mention causing cancer. If it didn't make so much money if would've been made illegal a long time ago!! And if smokers were more thoughtful of how they effect others, they might not have all of these strict rules now as well. It's a nasty habit that is bad for you and everyone around you and it's not fair to the rest of us who have to breathe it and smell it because YOU have an addiction.