Many famous photographs and movies from France all have one element in common. The people have a cigerettes dangling from their hands.  I have been going to France for the last 10 years and the non-smoking zones in restaurants were simply a joke. From my experience, everybody just ignored the law. I had times where people sat down, and lit up a cigerette and then made eye contact with me and said with confidence, “you don’t mind”? When I heard that the French had implemented a total non-smoking law in the restaurants, I had to laugh.

I was not putting too much faith into the full non-smoking law in restaurants! What a pleasant surprise, when I arrived and began to notice immediately that something quite big had changed. Every restaurant I saw or went into was a fully non- smoking establishment! For those of you who are allergic to smoke, the pubs and cafe still are smoking, but that may change in the furture.

Also when I took the sleeper train from Spain to France, there was no one smoking in the halls or in the sleeping areas. I could not believe it. Europe is changing its number one health issue!

If you are travelling to the city of Paris,you will notice some nice BIO(green) transporation changes. You can pick up a bicyle at many locations through out paris, pay a small fee and then drop it off at another location. It is less tiring then walking all day and you can see more of the city by biking. What a great idea. I saw lots of bike locations and the bikes seem to work well! Also in the down town core area of the city, they created 2 lanes for mass transit, bikes and cabs. What a bonus! We in north america should be encouraged to make these transportation changes!