Without breaking the monopoly on tobacco sales, and finding ways to stem the flow of cigarettes from the black market and across open EU borders, campaigners will struggle to bring France into line with other countries. Full story here:

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And cigarettes flood into France from neighbouring countries where tobacco is less taxed. Only 5 per cent of the tobacco sold in Luxembourg, where cigarettes cost a third of the price in France, is smoked in the Grand Duchy. Campaigners say this is a tactic by the tobacco giants.

A thriving black market also means maybe a third of cigarettes sold in France are contraband. In 2023 police discovered a massive illegal factory near Rouen.

The thing is, tabac shopkeepers are literally part of the French state: they are legally employees of French customs, under the Ministry of Finance. Anti-smoking campaigners say they have politicians in their pocket.

It isn’t just the power of the global tobacco corporations. Under a system dating to the 17th century regime of Louis XIV, tobacco is sold under a monopoly by 22,800 tobacco shops, or tabacs.

“The weak progress made by France in the fight against smoking, compared to other countries in the EU, has numerous explanations,” France’s National Committee Against Smoking said this month. The overarching one, it said, was the continuing influence of the tobacco lobby.

But people still pay: 1.5 billion cigarettes were sold in France last month, more than a 20-pack for every member of the population, including babies.

French taxes on cigarettes are the third highest in the EU, behind only Ireland and the Netherlands, at €9.28 for a pack of 20 as of July last year. At the counter a pack costs €12.50 (£10.50) on average.

The government officially discourages smoking. France banned tobacco adverts in 1991, 12 years before Britain, for example. It banned smoking indoors in 2007, the same year as Britain. It brought in plain packaging ten years later, the same as Britain.

French lunch breaks are non-negotiable. “Pauses café” is a way of life. “You take your time to sit down, you take your time to talk and you take your time to smoke,” psychologist Eric Malbos told me.

Clearly, smoking is part of French culture. The image of a sultry Serge Gainsbourg with cigarette in his hand, or his daughter Charlotte, wields power in the French soul. From 2015 to 2019 90 per cent of French films featured characters smoking, for an average of 2.6 minutes.

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