my wife and i will be going to paris in march and she is pregnant - will the smoking in the restaurants be a problem?

Parisians tend to smoke, less so now, but still it could be a problem for you. Most restaurants do not have non-smoking sections which are truly non-smoking. I hope this won't put you off, but perhaps it could be safer to travel after her pregnancy?

Yes, it will be a problem. Even when there are no-smoking areas, as required by French law now, they are often side by side with the smoking areas. Your best bet would be to go to restaurants that are entirely non-smoking, such as Joël Robuchon's new place and the several Le Pain Quotidien bakery cafés for breakfast and lunch. If you do a Google search for Paris non-smoking restaurants you can find a list.

Check this out:
http://www.smokefreeworld.com/paris.shtml

Forget the pregnancy. Many women smoked while pregnant and I sometimes wonder if the danger to the fetus is not exaggerated; any comparative studies between babies in the States and in Europe that can isolate the smoke factor? On the other hand, if you are used to a smoke-free environment, you may have problems with the smoky haze that is found in many establishments.

Michael,

For good or bad, in the US it has come to a point where it is not the amount of smoke, but the mere presence of it that makes tempers flare.

In Paris, smoke is a lot more noticeable than in the US, and people are a lot more tolerant about it. Asking someone to put out a cigarette or to move away can produce a very wide variety of reactions.

Never mind putting it out I got a nasty remark from a smoker when all I did was waft her own smoke back towards her (she was using her off hand to wave the smoke away from her own table towards ours for some reason). We just swiched tables.

Hi avigs,

>...she is pregnant - will the smoking in the restaurants be a problem?<

Shouldn't she consult her physician?

The question wasn't whether or not smoke is a problem but rather if the smoking environment in Paris would be a problem...and as anyone who has been there can, and some have already, attest(ed) the answer is YES unless you are able to sit outside to have meals or can actually find a smoke-free restaurant. And even if she were't pregnant it will STILL be a problem for some folks. The French, like many Americans, are hoping that they'll eb able to smoke in restaurants forever and one way they, and we, try to ensure this will happen is by being very self-denying about the risks to themselves and others and being sometimes physically combative when confronted as was mentioned above. It is simply a matter of time before things will change in eating places but not before March.

JonJon

Didn't you see the smiley?

I did, Ira... :}

I can understand you concern. I took my family to Paris and had similar concerns. My son has an occasional bout with Asthma. It wasn't too bad. If a place seemed too smokey, we'd wouldn't eat there. We tried to sit outside as much as possible (they do have outside heaters in the cooler weather), or we'd try to sit at a table not surrounded on all sides by other tables (on an aisle or near the door), just to avoid the possibility of having several smokers around us. Overall it wasn't much of a problem in Paris, or the other cities we visited.

hi, I went in March (02) when I was pregnant too. If the smell of smoking bothers your wife, then, considering that us pregnant women have these super sensitive smell detectors, it could possibly bother her. Thankfully, smoking wasn't an issue for me, although the smell of coffee was, which made for me waiting outside of the bakeries in the morning for my husband to bring out the food. If you are concerned about the issue of second-hand smoke, the way I saw it was that I am not usually, on a full-time basis around any smokers, so being, periodically, while on vacation at places where people were smoking was not going to do anything to me or that baby (and it didn't, he weighed 8.5 pounds). I think that you can wrap yourself in a knot about this, but just walking around any major street, including Paris, you smell car and bus fumes which are just as dangerous, and harder even to avoid. I wouldn't let it bother you or her IF the smell was not a bother.