Time for Antibes to give it up

World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed around the world every year on 31st May and is intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption around the globe.

France has long been a nation of smokers. Gauloise cigarettes were once something of a symbol of France and the romance of Paris. Jean-Paul Sartre smoked them, as did Albert Camus, Serge Gainsbourg, and even, at one time, George Orwell.

More recently though the smoking ban in public places and now public spaces has forced people to think twice before lighting up. This World No Tobacco Day is an opportunity for the 16 million French consumers, to try to get through a day without lighting up. Not easy!

Even the beaches of the Riviera are now slowly turning towards being 'tobacco free'. The following beaches are already non-smoking areas:

Nice

• Plage du Centenaire
• ​Plage de Lenval
• Plage de Sainte-Hélène
• Plage des Bains militaires
• ​La plage située en face du CUM

Cannes:

• Bijou plage, boulevard de la Croisette (en face du Palm Beach)
• ​Plage des Rochers, boulevard du midi à La Bocca.

Antibes:

• Les plages en régie municipales: Richelieu and Garoupe.

Menton:

• Plage du Fossan, boulevard du midi

Mandelieu:

• Plage de la Raguette

Villefrance-sur-Mer:

• Plage des Marinières

As well as the municipal beaches of Antibes, cigarettes are also now banned in the public gardens of Anitbes, such as the parc Exflora and the château de la Pinède. So even if World No Tobacco Day doesn't make you give up, maybe the local smoking bans will...