The country that made smoking sexy is breaking up with cigarettes
In France, cigarettes were never just cigarettes — they were cinematic statements, flirtations and rebellions wrapped in rolling paper.
Yet beginning July 1, if Bardot and Belmondo's iconic film scenes were repeated in real life, they would be subject to up to €135 ($153) in fines.
After glamorizing tobacco for decades, France is preparing for its most sweeping smoking ban yet. The new restrictions, announced by Health Minister Catherine Vautrin, will outlaw smoking in virtually all outdoor public areas where children may gather, including beaches, parks, gardens, playgrounds, sports venues, school entrances and bus stops.
'Tobacco must disappear where there are children,' Vautrin told French media. The freedom to smoke 'stops where children's right to breathe clean air starts.'
If Vautrin's law reflects public health priorities, it also signals a deeper cultural shift. Smoking has defined identity, fashion and cinema here for so long that the new measure feels like a quiet French revolution in a country whose relationship with tobacco is famously complex.
According to France's League Against Cancer, over 90 percent of French films from 2015 to 2019 featured smoking scenes — more than double the rate in Hollywood productions. Each French movie averaged nearly three minutes of on-screen smoking, effectively the same exposure as six 30-second television ads.
Cinema has been particularly influential. Belmondo's rebellious smoker in Jean-Luc Godard 's 'Breathless' became shorthand for youthful defiance worldwide. Bardot's cigarette smoke wafted through 'And God Created Woman,' symbolizing unbridled sensuality.
Yet this glamorization has consequences. According to France's public health authorities, around 75,000 people die from tobacco-related illnesses each year. Although smoking rates have dipped recently — fewer than 25% of French adults now smoke daily, a historic low — the habit remains stubbornly embedded, especially among young people and the urban chic.
France's relationship with tobacco has long been fraught with contradiction. Air France did not ban smoking on all its flights until 2000, years after major U.S. carriers began phasing it out in the late 1980s and early '90s. The delay reflected a country slower to sever its cultural romance with cigarettes, even at 35,000 feet.
Strolling through the stylish streets of Le Marais, the trendiest neighborhood in Paris, reactions to the smoking ban ranged from pragmatic acceptance to nostalgic defiance.
'It's about time. I don't want my kids growing up thinking smoke is romantic,' said Clémence Laurent, a 34-year-old fashion buyer, sipping espresso at a crowded café terrace. 'Sure, Bardot made cigarettes seem glamorous. But Bardot didn't worry about today's warnings on lung cancer.'
At a nearby boutique, vintage dealer Luc Baudry, 53, saw the ban as an attack on something essentially French. 'Smoking has always been part of our culture. Take away cigarettes and what do we have left? Kale smoothies?' he scoffed.
Across from him, 72-year-old Jeanne Lévy chuckled throatily, her voice deeply etched — she said — by decades of Gauloises. 'I smoked my first cigarette watching Jeanne Moreau,' she confessed, eyes twinkling behind vintage sunglasses. 'It was her voice — smoky, sexy, lived-in. Who didn't want that voice?'
Indeed, Jeanne Moreau's gravelly, nicotine-scraped voice transformed tobacco into poetry itself, immortalized in classics such as François Truffaut's 'Jules et Jim.' Smoking acquired an existential glamour that made quitting unimaginable for generations of French smokers.
France's new law mirrors broader European trends. Britain, Spain and Sweden have all implemented significant smoking bans in public spaces. Sweden outlawed smoking in outdoor restaurant terraces, bus stops and schoolyards back in 2019. Spain extended its bans to café terraces, spaces still exempt in France—at least for now.
In the Paris park Place des Vosges, literature student Thomas Bouchard clutched an electronic cigarette that is still exempt from the new ban and shrugged.
'Maybe vaping's our compromise,' he said, exhaling gently. 'A little less sexy, perhaps. But fewer wrinkles too.'
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We also expect the Israeli government to bring to a stop its latest settlement projects, the E1 projects with 3400 housing units that might split the West Bank in two pieces and prevent the emergence of a political, a two state solution. But what we call for is, of course, the immediate cease-fire, the liberation of whole hostages of Hamas, that needs to be disarmed. And the entry, the massive entry, of humanitarian help in Gaza. MARGARET BRENNAN: You are headed to New York, to the United Nations, to help lead a summit to talk about a two state solution. Your president announced France will formally recognize the state of Palestine at the UN in September. More than 100 countries recognize Palestine, but France is the first western UN Security Council member to do so, and the United States opposes what you are saying. Secretary of State Rubio called it "reckless." He says it serves Hamas propaganda, sets back peace, and considers it "a slap in the face to the victims of October 7." In your government's view, why is he wrong? : So the reason why President Macron made this decision is that it was absolutely necessary to restart a political process, the two state solution process that was- that is today threatened, more threatened that it- it has ever been. And the conference that will take place in New York tomorrow and Tuesday is a very significant milestone, because by- by- by recognizing, or announcing the recognition of Palestine, France has been able, alongside Saudi Arabia, that has- that will be co chairing this conference with us, to collect very significant historic commitments by all stakeholders, including the Palestinian Authority president and Arab countries, in favor of the two state solution, and guarantee security guarantees for Israel. The two state solution is very simple, and I think everyone can understand what we mean by that. The only way to bring peace and stability back in this region is to have two state, the state of Israel and the state of Palestine, living side by side in peace and in security. This perspective is now threatened, and it's why the- the dynamic that we have initiated was so important, and this is why the conference that will take place in New York is such an important milestone. All these efforts are very, very complementary to the efforts that the U.S. have done in the region since the first term of President Trump. We share the short-term objective: immediate cease-fire, liberation of all hostages of Hamas that needs to be disarmed. We share the long term objective: peace and stability in the region. And what we're doing, by bringing the Palestinian Authority leader to recognize seventh of October as a terrorist attack, by calling the Hamas- the disarm- for the disarmament of Hamas and the liberation of hostages, by committing to deep reform of the Palestinian Authority, and by committing to elections within one year, by bringing the Arab countries for the first time to condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament, we are creating, or recreating, the conditions for this political solution that, again, is the only path forward, and we are paving the way. We're paving the way for the future Abraham Accords that the U.S. administration might lead. So I see our effort as very complementary to the U.S. administration's effort, rather than substitutes. MARGARET BRENNAN: Minister Barrot, the president of the United States dismissed what President Macron said, the U.S. Ambassador mocked it. Do you believe that your plans can succeed without U.S. support? : Again, our efforts are very complementary . We share the short term objective, cease-fire, liberation of all hostages of Hamas, and the long term objective, peace and stability in the region. In fact, we will welcome any further efforts led by the U.S. to implement the Abraham Accord logics. And what we're doing now with this very significant conference that will take place in New York will pave the way for such accords. But in the meantime, until the U.S. administration provides, through the Abraham Accord logics, a political horizon for this crisis, we need to act in order to facilitate the- or create an off ramp for the catastrophe ongoing in Gaza. Now the terms, we will welcome and support future Abraham Accords, but in the meantime, inaction is not an option. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you briefly about an incident that has gained a lot of attention this past week involving some young French citizens who were removed from a flight from Spain. The airline claims they were kicked off for being disruptive. The Israeli government came out though and said the French students were removed because they're Jewish. Have you determined whether this was indeed an act of antisemitism? : I have called the CEO of this company, who has- to express our- our serious preoccupation. She has confirmed that an internal investigation is ongoing. My team has been reaching out to the ambassador of Spain in- in France, and we've made the same request. We'll keep following this situation as it unravels MARGARET BRENNAN: So too- too early to say, despite what the Israeli government is indicating. : I cannot comment on that at this point. We've taken action as- as soon as we got, you know, as we got notice of what was happening, we offered support on location through our embassy to this group. We then reached out to the- the airline company, to the Spanish authorities, and we're now following the results of these investigations. MARGARET BRENNAN: France has been very active diplomatically on a number of fronts. It was just five weeks ago when the United States and Israel bombed Iran. Since that time, France has talked to the Iranian government, along with other European powers, about what remains of Iran's nuclear program. How concerned are you that after these bombings, Iran may now covertly attempt to make a weapon, and the world won't know? : This is still a risk that we are facing, and alongside Germany and the UK, we have been very clear, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and we've been, over the past few months, reaching out to the Iranian authority in close coordination with U.S. authorities in order to express what our expectations are. Ten years ago, we reached a deal on the nuclear program that allowed for a significant rollback of Iranian nuclear capacity. Of course, things has changed. Still then, and since then, Iran has violated all commitments it had taken at the time of signing this agreement. We now want a more comprehensive agreement that would encompass both the nuclear dimension of Iranian destabilization activities, but also it's the ballistic component, as well as the regional destabilization activities that Iran has been conducting, unless we- unless a new and robust and durable and verifiable agreement is reached by the end of the summer, France, Germany and the UK will have no other choice but to reapply the global embargoes that were lifted 10 years ago when the nuclear agreement with Iran was signed, embargoes on weapons, on nuclear equipment, and on banking. MARGARET BRENNAN: So France is ready to snap back sanctions on Iran as soon as August. Are you asking Iran to speak directly to the United States in order to avoid that fate? : We've been speaking with Special Envoy Witkoff, Secretary Rubio, on a weekly basis on this topic that is highly important for the U.S., as for Europeans. We- we have supported U.S.-led efforts to enter into discussions with Iran. We have pressed Iran, after the 12 day war, to go back to a discussion with the U.S., and we'll keep pressing them to do so, because indeed, if there is no solid agreement that can be found by the end of August, we will have no other option but to snap back, meaning to reapply those global embargoes, and we are ready to do that. MARGARET BRENNAN: Minister Barrot, thank you very much for your time this morning.
