Is the smoking culture changing? albeit slowly?

While there I saw a commercial for a nicorette style gum showing a hapless smoker out in the wind and rain not getting his work done while his co-worker who was quitting smoking was inside, warm and dry working away. I was just wondering if this is purely a commercial venture or is there a more centralized effort to curb smoking?

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There is an effort to quit smoking, less people now smoke compared to the 70%26#39;s and 80%26#39;s. Still even if less men smoke, it seems that many women smoke, hence an increasing number of cancers. The government is doing a lot i think, with many campaigns. Even some companies are paying for one-day course on how to suit smoking for their employees!! Still it takes a long time to see a difference

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Well, many offices are phasing out smoking, but it it still common to walk down a hallway and smell cigarete smoke, even in %26quot;non-smoking%26quot; office buildings. It is common, but not so much as in North America, to see a fes smokers outside an office building sharing a smoke and some conversation.

Bars and restaurants are another story. Sure, there are non-smoking areas in many places and you can read about them in other posts, but in my daily experience here the bars and restaurants are generally %26quot;smoke as much as, whenever, and wherever you want%26quot; zones. I often sit in a crowded bistro at tables placed 10%26quot; apart. After finishing the entree, people feel very free to enjoy a cigarette while anticipating the main course; no matter that the people on either side may be in the middle of their main course or dessert. That being said, people who are really bothered or allergic can certainly arrange their visit to avoid most of the unwanted smoke, but if you just go and take it as it is, there is still a lot of smoking in restos and bars; there is no centralized effort to curb it that I am aware of.

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On our recent trip in November it did appear to me that there was less smoking than we had encouuntered on previos visits. I did not see anyone smoking in the metro or the large department stores for example. My clothes did no reek so much of smoke as they do when we come home from Vegas for example. We had lunch at Angelina%26#39;s and I did not see anyone smoking there. We had dinner at Cafe Bosquet and there were only a few smokers while we were there. I do think it is getting better. There nothing worse for me than trying to have a nice dinner surrounded by smoking.

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I too saw much less smoking in finer restaurants during dinner seatings - but I saw no cessation of smoking at brasseries during the day.

The most bizzare and irritating smoking-related experience we had was briefly sitting next to a woman who was smoking WHILE she was eating her first course, holding the fork and the cigarette in the same hand! Thank God she was unhappy with her seat and asked to be moved to a back room ;-)

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Things are better.

There used to be two sections in Paris restaurants: smoking and chain-smoking

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Things are better in restaurants.

Even in the smoking area, diners seem to smoke less.