Happy New Year!

I’m sending this e-missive from the City of Lights. That’s right, Paris, a city rich with history, romance and nicotine! The French certainly love to smoke, and I have the smelly, leftover stench of nicotine on my clothes to prove it!

On New Years Day, a no smoking ban was imposed here, which is good news for non-smokers like me. “Par Fumer” signs were posted on bars, cafes and restaurants across this charming smoke-filled city. However, in typically defiant French fashion, everyone is still smoking, and as smoked-filled bars and cafes are part of the culture here this ban will not take full effect overnight.

My clothes and hair still reek from yesterday’s visit to a Montmarte Cafe where many sipped coffee and puffed on their nicotine sticks with gay abandon—ignorant of the new smoking ban.

I asked one French 30-something-smoker what he thought. “What next? A ban on beer? It is stupid!” he said while puffing.

“HURRAH to the smoking ban,” says I.
“UP YOURS,” say the French.

Now, what’s my mission today after a trip to the Louvre? To find a laundromat to wash out the stench of smoke steeped deep in my clothes.


LIAM
xx