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| Private smoking parties have flourished since the public ban came into force |
Smokers in France are uniting to beat a ban on lighting up in public by organising open-house parties where they can puff on their Gauloises until the early hours.
The parties, held in flats and houses but also in clandestine clubs, often draw dozens of people for a drink, a chat, a dance and a cigarette. Some are paying, others are free, but all welcome the smokers who are deserting bars, bistrots and night clubs.
The movement has flourished since the introduction of a smoking ban in all public places on January 1, and has been compared to the speakeasies that secretly served alcohol during the Prohibition in the US in the 1920s. Internet networks have sprung up to link the partygoers and inform them of planned festivities.
One such network was created on Facebook by a 30-year-old Gauloises-smoking DJ who gives his name only as Shandor. "We set up the group because of the smoking ban," he told The Times. "It was clear to us that it was going to be very complicated to go to a nightclub now. "A whole evening without a cigarette is very hard - especially when you're drinking - so you're better off at a party.
The group - Pour le Grand Retour de la Fête en Appart' en 2008 ("For the Great Comeback of Parties in Flats in 2008") - originally included a few dozen people. Now it has 1,182 members. "It's taken off so much that we've had to create a second, secret group," said Shandor. "You can't really have 1,000 people in a small flat."
His network is free and informal, with members giving the address and date of their parties on the web. But others are more structured. Open Appart', for instance, was set up by a graphic designer who holds monthly gatherings for well-connected Parisians in a 50 square metre flat in the centre of the city.
"I got an invitation on the internet from a friend of a friend," said Antoinette, 60, a teacher. "It's friendlier than cafés, you can smoke and it's not so expensive." In another initiative, a chef in south Paris has set up an unofficial restaurant at his home where diners - attracted by word of mouth - can eat and "have a fag without having to go outside", according to Le Parisien newspaper.
Vincent Grégoire, artistic director at Nelly Rodi, the trend-forecasting agency, said that a dozen or so secret establishments had been formed in Paris since the smoking ban. "They're halfway between public and private - where you only get in if you're invited by an existing member," he said.
"Sometimes you need a password and you have to pay a membership fee. This all existed before but it has really taken off after the smoking ban. People want to authorise for themselves everything that they're not supposed to do."
France introduced a ban on smoking in the workplace on February 1 last year and extended the measures to its 200,000 bars, cafés and nightclubs 11 months later. They report a drop in custom of between 10 and 20 per cent as a result.
Five fingers with the thumb on the nose! But then, legislation may try to illegalize "undergrounds" and/or setup raids like the Nazi party, perhaps. These psychocrats never ceases to amaze me.