They drink half as much red wine as they used to, barely anyone wears a beret, the bidet has been banished from their bathrooms ... and now they've stopped making Gauloises. Le pays, as the French do not say, is going to les chiens.
The Franco-Spanish cigarette firm Altadis confirmed yesterday that it was closing down the last factory in France still turning out its near-mythical dark tobacco brands, and moving production to Alicante to be "closer to the consumer".
The plant, in the northern city of Lille, once produced 12bn pungent Gauloise and Gitane "brunes" a year, but consumption of France's favourite gasper has slumped as light-tobacco brands such as Marlboro and Camel have come to dominate the market.
Lauded in songs, featured in films, dragged on by such inveterate addicts as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge Gainsbourg, choked over in cafes from Cannes to Calais, Gauloises and Gitanes were as much a symbol of Gallic identity as baguettes and Bordeaux wine.
In the absence of Gauloises and Gitanes, how will today's youth be able to convey that aura of cosmopolitan sophistication?
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