QUENTIN LETTS: My friends in France say their country's ban on smoking in public will be ignored with a Gallic shrug. Will we be as defiant when it happens here?
The gendarmerie may be in for a busy summer. It will soon be illegal to smoke outdoors in France, the government having ruled that 'tobacco must disappear where there are children'. The ban will apply anywhere near youngsters, from the ski slopes of La Plagne or Courchevel to the boulevards of Reims and Marseille. Defense de fumer.
If you hoped to stroll down Paris's Rue de Verneuil, sucking on a Disque Bleu while striking Serge Gainsbourg poses – sultry Sixties star Serge was seldom seen sans cig – then you have only 29 full days left to do it. From July, it will be illegal to light a cigarette en plein air. Those who disobey will be fined 135 euros (£113).
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