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Paris Smoking Museum
Only in Paris would you find a place like the Musée du Fumeur, a museum devoted to the art and history of that favorite Parisian pasttime: smoking
The French may have been among the first in Euope to put anti-smoking laws on the books, but I get the feeling they may be the last actually to start enforcing them (though in an age when the Italians, of all people, have actually already booted their puffers out onto the street to huddle in doorways, the era of smoky cafes and restaurants in Europe must really be coming to an end).
Since it was instituted in 1992, the French smoking "ban" was, as of 2004, being ignored by 84% of restaurants and nearly 100% of bars and cafes (this according to the Association of the Rights of Non-Smokers).
This is a nation that truly loves its cancer sticks. About a third of the population lights up regularly, and a cigarette is as much fashion accessory and symbol of French culture as it is addictive habit.
Look at it this way: the iconic brand with the the nationalistic name Gauloises is amongst the harshest non-filtered cigs outside of the Third World (even if, as of 2005, they are no longer manufactured in France).
So it's no surprise the French have an entire museum dedicated to the science, art, culture, and history of smoking around the world, from Victorian snuff boxes and 17th century pipes (check out the surreptitious copper ones worn at the waist by Chinese dignitaries so they could smoke opium on the sly), to exhibits on hand-rolling cigars in Cuba and a "grow room" filled with all sort of plants, both of the regular and the wacky tabbacy varieties. (No, the latter is not available in the gift shop; this isn't Amsterdam, you know.)
www.museedufumeur.net
7 rue Pache, 11eme (Metro: Voltaire) 01 46 59 05 51
Closed Sun morning and Mon
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This article was last updated in December 2006. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998–2010 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
