Non-Fumeur

It seems like yesterday I was lamenting the, well, un-Frenchness of this law. Here we are, with an official AP account of the reaction in Paris.

My favorite is this section:

"Others saw the ban as attack on their rights.

"Jean-Pierre Aiglement, a 55-year-old waiter at the Cafe Au Depart in northern Paris, vowed not to be 'chased out onto the pavement' by the 'stupid law.'

" 'I'll smoke where I please,' he said, lighting a cigarette with his morning coffee."

That pretty much sums up how I'd imagined many Parisians would react. But apparently the health wave has already been successful elsewhere in Europe.

Maybe it's for the best. And maybe that French surgeon who examined me (during an appendicitis attack), at a Paris hospital, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, will balk at the $93 fine and be huddling under the awnings outside like the rest of them.

Justice for all.