The other day’s post on alcohol will now be followed with another vice. That would be smoking of course. In Paris, a haven for smokers even with a bistro ban, you’ll find the world’s only Smoking Museum. I mean, let’s not forget…cigarette is a French word after all. At Le Musée du Fumeur an interesting collection of international smoking-culture relics are crammed into a 650-square-foot storefront near the Rue de la Roquette. Peace pipes, hemp clothing, 17th century smoking paraphernalia, Cuban cigars, hookahs, 1920s-era etchings of cigarette-toting debutantes, scientific drawings of tobacco plants, copies of High Times DVDs are all to be found in the various display cases. The gift shop offers your typical highbrow cigar magazines along with glass bongs and pamphlets on how to quit smoking, which reminds me…smoking is not allowed in the Smoking Museum. Just like the rest of France apparently. How ironic.
Oh, and one more thing.
HEY, KIDS! SMOKING STINKS! Besides the fact that it’s an expensive habit, you will most likely turn into Ma from Ma’s Roadhouse, get cancer and die. So don’t smoke. But please do your part in being cultural and visit a museum about smoking. Thank you. And have a nice day.
