PARIS — France will ban smoking on beaches, in public gardens and near schools starting from July 1st in an effort to protect young people from tobacco and limit the influence of smokers upon them.

"Tobacco must disappear where there are children," said Health Minister Catherine Vautrin, in an interview with French newspaper Ouest-France on Thursday. Vautrin emphasized that the freedom to smoke "ends where children's right to breathe clean air begins."

Middle and high schools will also be affected by the ban, particularly to prevent "students from smoking in front of their schools," said Vautrin.

Any American visitor to France will be struck by the number of smokers in general and especially the number of young people puffing away on café terraces.

But tobacco use in France has act

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