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France's Smoking Speakeasies
Psst! Want to enjoy a cigarette indoors, in convivial company, in a city that raised smoking to an art form? Paris smokers gasping for fags are opening secret smoking clubs and restaurants in private homes, organising meetings via Facebook and even hiring chefs and DJs to cater for the clandestine crowd.
It's thought that twelve smoking clubs have opened in the city since the ban was introduced in January. Dozens more "smoking parties" have been established, but the big twelve have a secretive membership system, including passwords and fees, building membership via word of mouth.
The Times says that custom in pubs and cafés has fallen from 10-20 percent since the ban was introduced: Supporters of the smoking ban argued that millions of people who previously didn't go out because they disliked cigarette fumes would flock to cafés once the air was cleaned up. It seems more likely, however, that the sort of Parisians who didn't go out before the ban largely don't go out at all.
