Imagine French cafes free of cigarette smoke, without smoldering butts or ash underfoot.

The prospect — an imminent reality — raises a question that smoker and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre might have enjoyed contemplating: Will France still be France without widespread smoking in public?

A new ban on smoking in French offices and other public buildings begins next month and will ensnare bars, cafes, restaurants, hotels and casinos from 2008 onward.

France is following the lead of other European countries such as Ireland, Italy or Spain. But cigarettes for many remain as much a part of the French art of living as wine and fatty foods.

“It’s very worrisome,” award-winning author and smoker Maurice Druon said of the ban. “For four centuries, tobacco was a wonderful thing. … It was said to be the ‘holy herb,’ and now it’s been decreed as horrifying.”

Source: Det News