Back in October we commented on the unlikely success of a La Mairie de Paris-SYNHORCAT initiative to have Parisian bistros and cafés voluntarily become smoke-free ("Ici, c'est 100% sans tabac").

We wonder how things turned out?

PARIS CIGARETTE BAN GOES UP IN SMOKE

The [Parisian] city council was yesterday forced to acknowledge that a voluntary scheme launched three months ago aimed at encouraging Paris's 12,452 cafes, bistros and brasseries to declare themselves smoke-free zones had been adopted by barely 30.

Under the scheme, devised by the city's deputy mayor in charge of public health, Alain Lhostis, cafes and restaurants can apply for a sticker issued by the Mairie de Paris bearing the words: Ici, c'est 100% sans tabac .

"It's early days yet," a spokeswoman said. "The idea is good and I'm sure it will catch on eventually. I think bars and restaurants just had other things to think about over Christmas and the new year."

Other things like staying in business.

Proprietors argue that banning smoking would amount to commercial suicide. ... In the face of customer pressure, laws on smoking in public places are widely ignored in most cafes and restaurants.

"It's a daft idea and it was doomed to failure from the start," Yves Bougeard of the catering industry union UMIH [Union des métiers et des Industries de l'Hôtellerie], told Le Parisien. "France's existing laws already force bars and restaurants to provide no-smoking areas. Surely that's enough? How can you ask customers to stop smoking when 43% of establishments in Paris also sell cigarettes?"

[All emphases added.]

LOL 30 / 12,452!

Think of all the money that went into this 'campaign'...wasted...LOL...when any
Frenchie could have told them that the idea was ludicrous.