The Extraordinary Garden in the Miséry quarry in Nantes – J. Urbach / 20 Minutes
You will have to light your cigarette elsewhere. From Saturday, the city of Nantes will experiment with the “Tobacco-free space” approach, already adopted by other cities in France. In consultation with the League against cancer, it has defined five green spaces where smoking will be prohibited. The most emblematic of these sites is undoubtedly the Extraordinary Garden. The Noë Mitrie park (Doulon district), the Admiral Halgan square (opposite the town hall), the Nantes-Nord gourmet resort and the entire Clos Toreau playground complete the list.
Concretely, it will therefore not be possible to smoke in these places, whether it is a classic cigarette or an electronic one. Awareness-raising events will be regularly organized and municipal agents (including police officers) will ensure that the rules are respected. However, no verbalization is planned, specifies the town hall, which explains wanting to show “pedagogy”.
“To denormalize smoking”
The objective of this experiment, which should last a year before its possible expansion, is in particular to “denormalize smoking” or “to reduce the initiation of smoking among young people”. The stake is also environmental since in 2019, “240,000 cigarette ends” had been collected in a few hours in the streets of Nantes.