I love Paris in the Springtime

Or well, I did. It appears that our snail-guzzling chums across the channel have succumed to the worst of Anglo-Saxon excess.

Paris move to ban outdoor heaters at cafés in fresh blow to smokers

And who is behind this classic piece of autocracy?

But now the Socialist and Green-run town hall has declared war on the heaters, calling them an ecological disaster. "Warming the little birds in winter is not very useful," said Lyne Cohen-Solal, the Socialist deputy mayor in charge of trade.

She is spearheading the push for new regulations, to come into force by January next year, which would also forbid the use of plastic partitions to keep in the heat on terraces. They are deemed unsightly and a fire hazard. Glass partitions would be allowed. Cafés that have already purchased the heaters will have two years to phase them out.

So which is it?
Libertie (Nope), Egalitie (not for smokers) or Fraternity (nope not that either).
Po-faced sanctimonious nitwits the lot of them. What is more it seems deeply dodgy as well, as she is up in court for fraud in December.

Happily I can report that earlier this week in a little bar in a little village I know is rural France the locals saw me coming and moved outside. So they could tell I was English? I asked the barowner,
"Non mon ami, ils fument dans mon bar, mais vous etes un visiteur. They wish to be polite".

I waved them back in.