DAWN OF A NEW AGE....

On January 1st, 2008, Paris (and France) entered into a new era. The era of "no smoking". It is now illegal to smoke inside all bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants (until Dec 31st you could still smoke in all restaurants - eww). For us non-smokers, this is the best news. Particularly for dining out as there is nothing worse than the guy next to you blowing smoke over your food. You can now pop down to your local and have a beer sans the sting in your eyes and the smell in your hair from all the smoke.

The bar across the road from my house, La Liberte, is a local smokers hang-out since way back. La Lib attracts an "interesting" clientèle ranging from grungy yuppies, bums, old alcholics, down-and-outers, musicians, most of which are extremely friendly and up for a chat and/or dance. But going in there was really horrible because it was airless and there was so much smoke you could hardly see 1 meter in front of you. Now, its all sunny and yellow, smells like beer not smoke and there is always a crowd of people huddling outside, braving the cold while they have a smoke. My friend is always complaining bitterly about this new situation, he says that "la Lib is a smoking bar, you should be able to designate some bars as smoking zones".... I just tell him to try quitting again!