![\"Elise](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/whatsapp-image-2025-06-30-at-14-09-27-1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n Paris
\n CNN
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n This summer in Paris, a sunset cigarette under the Eiffel Tower could come with an unexpected price tag.\n <\/p>\n
\n Starting July 1, France has banned smoking in all outdoor areas frequented by children \u2014 including parks, beaches, public gardens, bus stops, school entrances, and sports venues. The sweeping measure is part of President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s pledge to create \u201cthe first tobacco-free generation\u201d by 2032.\n <\/p>\n
\n Lighting up in these zones could cost smokers more than a dirty look from a passerby. Those who break the rules \u2014 including unsuspecting tourists \u2014 face a fine of 90 euros if they pay within 15 days, going up to 135 euros (around $150) after that.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cFrance is positioning itself as one of Europe\u2019s most proactive countries in terms of tobacco control,\u201d Raquel Ven\u00e2ncio, senior policy officer at Smoke Free Partnership, a coalition of European tobacco control advocacy groups, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n While countries like Spain and Italy have introduced restrictions on smoking in certain areas at local or regional levels, France stands out as the only European country to enforce a nationwide ban against beach smoking.\n <\/p>\n
\n But not all citizens support the new measure.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe more time goes by, the more the government wants to take away our basic freedoms,\u201d Elise Levaux, a 25-year-old student in Paris, told CNN. \u201cIf you\u2019re being respectful \u2014 not throwing away cigarette butts in a park or beach, not disturbing others \u2014 I don\u2019t see the problem. Why should smoking suddenly be treated like a crime?\u201d\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n The restrictions are undoubtedly a major shift in a country long synonymous with cigarette culture. From Brigitte Bardot to Charles de Gaulle, French icons were rarely seen without a Gauloises \u2014 the archetypal French brand \u2014 in hand. \u201cFrance\u2019s intellectual circles and cinematic culture have normalized cigarettes for generations,\u201d Ven\u00e2ncio observed. \u201cFor decades, there was no political will to ban smoking.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But the national relationship with tobacco is changing.\n <\/p>\n
\n Smoking in France is at its lowest level since the 1990s, the National Committee against Tobacco (CNCT) reports. Today, around a third of adults in France smoke, with 23%<\/a> of the adult population saying they smoke daily, according to a 2024 report from the French national public health agency. Tobacco use is declining<\/a> among young people, with only 16% of 17-year-olds reporting they smoke daily in 2022, the most recent data available \u2014 down from 25% six years prior.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, France remains one of Europe\u2019s most tobacco-dependent countries, fueled in part by what officials have called an \u201cexplosion<\/a>\u201d in cigarette smuggling, largely<\/a> from Bulgaria, Turkey, and Algeria. In 2024 alone, France consumed an estimated 18.7 billion illicit cigarettes, according to a KPMG<\/a> study carried out for tobacco giant Philip Morris \u2014 accounting for a staggering 38% of tobacco use and making it the largest illicit tobacco market in Europe.\n <\/p>\n \n Most regular smokers begin in their teenage years, with nearly 90% of them picking up the habit before turning 18, according to the Ministry of Health.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019ve been smoking since I was 14,\u201d said Jane, 25, who declined to give her last name. \u201cMost of my friends started just as young. Fine or no fine, we\u2019re going to continue smoking. It\u2019s part of the French identity \u2014 we fight for what we want. We\u2019re not robots.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In a statement shared with CNN, Minister of Health Catherine Vautrin said that \u201cprotecting youth and denormalizing smoking\u201d is an \u201cabsolute priority\u201d for the government. \u201cAt 17, you should be building your future, not your addiction,\u201d she said. \u201cWhere there are children, tobacco must disappear.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Unlike Belgium and the United Kingdom, which recently prohibited the sale of disposable vapes<\/a>, France\u2019s new rules do not ban e-cigarettes \u2014 at least for now. The new regulations do, however, include a reduction in authorized nicotine levels in vaping products, as well as strict limits on flavors like cotton candy, which critics say are designed to appeal to young people.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThese products serve as gateways to addiction and will be regulated, starting in 2026,\u201d Vautrin said.\n <\/p>\n \n Tobacco use remains the leading preventable health risk in the European Union, causing nearly 700,000 premature deaths<\/a> each year, according to EU figures. In France alone, it accounts for 75,000 deaths<\/a> each year \u2014 equivalent to 200 deaths per day<\/a>, according to the country\u2019s health ministry.\n <\/p>\n \n Beyond the direct toll on smokers and those around them, tobacco products also pose an environmental hazard. An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 tons of cigarette butts are discarded across France each year, according to the Ministry of Health.\n <\/p>\n![\"Jane,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/whatsapp-image-2025-06-30-at-14-09-27.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"Facade](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2171278502.jpg\")
<\/p>\n