French fuming

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France -- OK, so the French don't actually smoke that much. I mean, really. According to World Health Organization figures, 34.5 percent of the population smokes. Compare that to Indiana, where 27 percent of adults and 39 percent of high school seniors smoke, and the stereotypical Frenchman with baguette in hand and cigarette in mouth seems more archaic. \nUnlike America, where smoking is often regarded as shameful, the French smoke publicly, happily and unabashedly. They gleefully puff under no smoking signs and extract their Marlboros, like true rebels, from packs that declare in giant bold letters, "Smoking Kills." (The American Surgeon General's got nothing on these anti-smoking warnings.) French smokers smoke everywhere, anywhere, any time. From photos of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre with his omnipresent cigarette to the clouds of smoke in French New Wave movies, smoking is ingrained in French culture as intellectual, admirable and chic. \nAll these attributes make France's impending public smoking ban more astonishing. In 2007, France will ban smoking in most public places, followed in 2008 by a ban in bars, restaurants and cafes. Needless to say, this ban has riled up some French smokers to a true lather, yet they are confronted by overwhelmingly supportive public opinion. It would appear that the nonsmoking French public wouldn't mind never seeing -- or more accurately, smelling -- their smoking countrymen ever again.\nAlas, the French have arrived at a conflict between two great French loves: smoking and telling their citizens what to do. While smoking bans in Ireland, Italy and even good ol' Bloomington have worked despite strong local smoking cultures, France is the smoker's romantic, symbolic home. David Sedaris commented in his Bloomington show that he lived in Paris so he could smoke wherever he wanted. The French smoker is so entrenched that no amount of dissuasion can kick the habit. \nDespite concerted efforts toward achieving a smoke-free university, the stairwells and hallways here at the Université de Provence still marinate in ubiquitous clouds of smoke. People try to be courteous about smoking in general. Nevertheless, as the comical nonsmoking partitions in your local Applebee's demonstrate, smoke gets around no matter how courteous you are. \nAs far as I can tell, smoking is happily tolerated here. In the survey mentioned above, the one question they failed to ask is how much respondents care about it. Sure, people generally support banning it, but nonsmokers have been sucking secondhand ash for so long I doubt they'll notice much difference when the ban takes effect in January.\nIn France or in Indiana, the troubling effect of smoking bans is the conversion of smokers into criminals. Smokers are about two steps above lepers and lawyers in American culture these days. It'd be a shame if France, a proud bastion of liberty, further marginalized and criminalized nearly 35 percent of its population. \nSitting in an Aix-en-Provence cafe surrounded by happy smokers and nonsmokers alike, I'm not too worried.