Adult beverages in Paris public spaces?
#1
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Join Date: Feb 2006
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Adult beverages in Paris public spaces?
Am interested in both he legal and actual situations for a discreetly shared bottle of wine in the parks and similar public spaces. For example, I recall no issues on the Champs de Mars, but can't remember seeing such consumption in the Tuileries and Luxembourg Gardens. Is this formally prohibited but overlooked in many (or all) locations? Or is it generally allowed but simply uncommon/gauche depending on location? Or is it more complicated and somewhere in between? Thanks.
#4
Join Date: Jan 2003
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"Adult beverages" - never heard that expression before. Anyway, we've picnicked in Jardin du Luxembourg before with a nice bottle of wine. Nobody batted an eyelid - the police and park wardens were more concerned with people sitting or playing on areas of the lawn that were off-limits.
#7
Alcoholic beverages are banned in the parks of Paris. However, the only reason that this ban exists is to have the opportunity to get rid of rowdy drunks and miscellaneous bums when necessary. "Normal" people behaving "normally" will not be bothered for drinking in public. If for some reason the enforcement is stricter than usual (as often happened in the Les Halles park which no longer exists for the moment, and also on the Champ de Mars below the Eiffel Tower which became notorious for teen binge drinking from time to time), the police will just gently tell you to stop and not march you away wearing handcuffs.
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Join Date: Dec 2005
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Reminds me of a picnic we had in Toronto where it WAS forbidden to consume such beverages (Don't know if it is still) We had our bike ride, and started our picnic, with the wine bottle in a brown paper bag. When we heard a helicopter overhead, our first reaction was 'they've caught us!' We practically hid under the table. They weren't, of course, after us, but other Torontonians would understand the response.