Sarko has been trying to justify his much publicised relationship with his new amour, telling a press conference that they didn't want to lie about it, didn't want to hide it, and didn't want to exploit it. Hmm, strange way of 'not exploiting it' - take your new girlfriend to Disneyland, Egypt, and when the latter was overshadowed by the Bhutto assassination, organise another highly mediatised trip to Petra in Jordan.
All very new for the French, who are used to their presidents conducting their affairs in secret. One newspaper columnist may have hit the nail on the head by wondering if it was all about Sarkozy thumbing his nose at Cecilia, his ex-wife. "Look, my new girlfriend is younger, more famous and better-looking than you..."
Opinion polls suggest the publicity may have backfired - Sarkozy's approval rating is below 50% for the first time since the start of his presidency.
Meanwhile, France has followed most of the rest of western Europe and banned smoking in all public buildings, including from Jan 1st, restaurants, bars & cafés. A revolutionary change in a country where 1 in 4 adults smokes, according to WHO statistics, 1 in 2 according to my own anecdotal evidence. There's been a lot of grumbling from bar & café owners, tabac owners and anyone else with an axe to grind, but so far it seems the law is being by and large followed. There was certainly no-one smoking during our visit to a British-style pub on Sunday, but the pub seemed emptier than usual. Whether due to the smoking ban, post-party season fatigue, or the lack of drawing power of the football match on TV I couldn't say...
There has only been one publicised case about a café owner deliberately and publically flouting the law, and the café in question is right in the middle of Lyon. 2 van loads of CRS police raided the place a few days ago, fined the owner and one of the several dozen smoking clients, then left. Two minutes later everyone lit up again. Apparently the proprietor is hoping to pay his fines by selling photographs of the full ashtrays in the café on the Internet - protest art of a sort I suppose, but I also imagine all the publicity isn't doing his turnover any harm either...
