# France expands smoking bans to parks, beaches and school zones, but leaves e-cigarettes out
France introduced a new public health decree on 2025-06-28 that will ban smoking in parks, sports venues, beaches, bus stops and areas near schools or anywhere children gather, adding another layer to one of Europe’s most visible anti-tobacco campaigns. The ban is set to take effect on July 1, and electronic cigarettes are exempt.
AP reported that the government published the decree on Saturday after saying last month that the new restrictions were coming. The change extends France’s long effort to push smoking out of public life. Smoking has already been prohibited in restaurants, bars and public buildings since a series of bans in 2007 and 2008, but the new measure reaches into open-air spaces where children are more likely to be present.
Health Minister Catherine Vautrin said more than 200 people in France die each day from tobacco-related illness, or about 75,000 a year. The government also cited public health figures showing that 15% of 17-year-olds smoke, a reminder that young people remain a key target for anti-smoking policy.
The decree lands in a country where smoking has long had cultural cachet and where public restrictions have often been framed as a challenge to personal freedom. Philippe Bergerot, who leads the French League Against Cancer, told AP that the goal is “denormalization” rather than a total prohibition. The point, in his view, is to stop smoking from seeming ordinary in places where it can affect children and public health.
There is still resistance. In Paris, some residents welcomed the move while others complained it would make parks and open-air spaces feel more restrictive. The policy therefore captures a familiar French tension: a strong public health consensus on tobacco’s harms, combined with a national instinct to resist rules that appear to police personal behaviour too aggressively.
The measure also places France within a broader European trend. Britain and Sweden have tightened smoking rules in public spaces, while Spain is extending restrictions to café and restaurant terraces. France’s new ban is narrower than Spain’s but broader than its own previous rules, signalling a steady shift toward lower tolerance for smoking in shared spaces.
With the new decree, France is trying to make smoking less visible in the places where children, families and daily public life overlap. The country is not banning cigarettes outright. It is making them harder to smoke where society is most likely to see them.
