Are Restraunts and hotels non smoking in France now. I hope so.

Restaurants are and public spaces in hotels. As of January, 2008.

Hotel rooms are NOT non-smoking unless specifically designated. If this is important to you (allergies or whatever) contat the hotel directly to see if there are non-smoking rooms.

Also, outdoor terraces are NOT non-smoking. This can be a real drag when living in the south as the majority of time we are eating outdoors when going out...

-Kevin

Went to the west coast near Biaritz, they do not seem to take any notice of the smoking ban there, we went in two enclosed bars and they were openly smoking in them.

A friend of ours asked about non-smoking rooms in a Paris hotel a few years ago. The response was something like "Monsieur, it is a non-smoking room if you do not smoke in it."

Times have changed. There are many hotels in Paris now that are completely non smoking.

Kevin, WADR, you choose to eat in the smoking area (terrace) as opposed to the non-smoking area (ndoors) and then complain?! Just sayin...

Paul's reply reminds me of a stay at a low budget hotel in the US about 15 yrs ago.

I requested and was "given" a non-smoking room. There were ash trays in the room and the room (carpets, drapes, etc) all reeked to high heaven. Called front desk and the said they'd send someone over right away to get me all set. Here I am thinking they'll be coming over w/ key to a different room. LOL. Manager came over and simply removed the ash trays from the room. Problem solved.

Some hotels will also "fix" a smelly room problem by spraying 5-10 gallons of deodorizer or some other Febreze like chemical all around the room right before you arrive. I'd be afraid to light a match in the room there is so much chemical in the air, mixed with the staleness from the smoke in all the fabrics.

I've learned to really appreciate totally non-smoking properties like the Marriott chains (at least in the US).

In Portugal many years ago, we asked for a non-smoking room. The reply: "Sir, No one has to smoke in their room if they don't want to." A bit of a transation problem!