Lighting up in style: the gentleman's smoking room is back

(AFP) Sink back into a leather armchair and let the grey plumes curl up to the ceiling: tobacco may be banned from bars and clubs across Western cities, but the gentleman's smoking lounge is making a comeback. Even as Spain prepares to ring in the New Year with a smoking ban in bars, renegade nightspots in Paris and Berlin are bucking the European trend, opening designer smoking rooms, complete with pianos, pool tables and cigar lockers.
Since the French capital outlawed smoking in bars and clubs three years ago, sending hordes of punters onto the sidewalk to smoke and chat, the city has seen a surge in lawsuits pitting clubs and bars against their sleepless neighbours.
So it's hardly surprising that high-end Paris clubs are now spearheading the smoking lounge revival. Continued

Illustration: Puck/Library of Congress