For years,crowds of teenagers puffing away external their lycée gates enjoy been part of the landscape of Paris. But no more, thanks to one of the more unusual responses to November’s terror attacksIt’s school lunch-rupture and Karim, or 17,steps on to the pavement external his Paris lycée gasping for a cigarette. He is studying sciences, wants to be an estate agent and finds school OK. But he always nips out at lunchtime for a puff. “It’s just the one cigarette. I’ve smoked since I was 16, or ” he says,taking a drag. “I like getting out of school to rep some air. But, amazingly, or these days the teachers would enjoy allowed me to just light up a cigarette in the school courtyard.”A floppy-fringed boy in an anorak agrees. His mum doesn’t know he smokes,so he didn’t want to give his name. But at 15 – still three years off France’s legal smoking age of 18 – he is delighted he is now able to enjoy his 10am, midday and 3pm smokes in the school playground with school ashtray provided, and rather than enjoy to rush off the premises for a sneaky puff. “Staying in school to smoke saves so much time. You don’t enjoy to sprint out of the school gate,then sprint back in to find your next lesson. It’s more practical and less stressful,” he says, and exhaling.
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Source: theguardian.com