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It's quite some time since I've been there but I can't remember an ID system being in place. I didn't have to produce an ID and usually I selected non-alcoholic

It's quite some time since I've been there but I can't remember an ID system being in place. I didn't have to produce an ID and usually I selected non-alcoholic drinks. However, that was before the proliferation of smartphones, so back then it is likely there was no ID checking. As a nonsmoker, I can't speak about cigarette machines, likely there was no ID on them too. Nowadays, with smartphones etc. checking IDs is comparatively easy but I can't think how it would have been done back then.

rjh29 1y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taspo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taspo
- hilbert42 1y ago
  Right, that's cleared things up. Both the Taspo/Tobacco Card and vending machine capability (cash or credit, top up card, etc.) weren't available when I was there last. I'd reckon the strict ID requirements for Taspo card must have been quite a cultural shock. My recollection was that back then tobacco products were much more freely available than where I was living.
  - rjh29 1y ago
    It didn't properly come out until 2008, so until then I suppose schoolchildren could have easily used the machines! Unimaginable in most countries.
    - hilbert42 1y ago
      OK, that settles it, my experience was before 2008. "Unimaginable in most countries." Well, perhaps so these days, but it wasn't at all so when I was a kid. At somewhere between 10 and 12 years old when still in primary school occasionally we kids bought cigarettes on our way home and ducked off somewhere secluded to smoke them. A few shopkeepers wouldn't sell them to us but many would. There weren't many cigarette machines about (they were usually located on railway stations, in theater foyers etc.), but those in use could be operated by anyone including us kids. Moreover, cigarettes were very cheap, they had nothing like the huge taxes on them of today—so cheap we had no difficulty in purchasing them out of our pocket money. Kids smoking was frowned upon by most parents and teachers but it wasn't illegal. That's why we smoked in secluded places where we wouldn't be seen. (Back then, smoking was accepted and considered pretty normal for adults, especially men. Since then attitudes have changed dramatically.) For the record, except for that occasional experimenting as a kid I've never smoked since, nor have I ever had any desire to do so.
    - rkomorn 1y ago
      > Unimaginable in most countries. I guess that also applies to France... because why would we use machines when we could just walk into a shop and buy cigarettes without ID? I remember my much older sister sending me off to buy cigarettes for her when I was maybe 12 and having zero problems. Many of my friends smoked through high school, also with zero problems acquiring cigarettes. So yeah, using machines to buy cigarettes as a kid? Unimaginable for me, but I'm guessing not the way you were imagining it.
      - hilbert42 1y ago
        "…because why would we use machines when we could just walk into a shop and buy cigarettes without ID?" Exactly, I'm not in France but that practice was pretty common in most Western countries not that many decades ago (see my reply to this post). I didn't mention it but where I am (Australia) it also was pretty common for a kid to go to the shops to pick up cigarettes for, say, a parent. When I first went to France decades ago (I've relatives in Paris) I found smoking was even more culturally entrenched than where I am, there were posters everywhere for Gitanes, Gauloises and other cigarettes. In fact, France is the home of many classic posters advertising or showing people smoking, many are so good they're now considered works of art. I've not been to France for some time but I gather in recent years the French's attitude towards smoking has changed dramatically and the practice is now frowned upon culturally—or at least that's my perception from a far. Correct me if I'm wrong. That's not what I'd have expected (anyway, not to such a degree); unlike the puritanical guilt-ridden English, I'd have thought French culture was more resilient. What brought this change to my attention was the recent kerfuffle over the French icon Jacques Tati's M. Hulot where posters on the Métro were censored—M. Hulot is portrayed sans pipe! My immediate reaction was 'sacrilege, the vandal who did that had an unmitigated damn hide—what the Hell's going on in France to allow that to happen?'. You see, I'm a great Tati fan and Jour de fête, Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot and Mon Oncle are some of my most loved films—so the 'desecration' affected me personally. As I've mentioned, I'm a nonsmoker and I applaud the reduction in smoking in recent years but vandalizing a cultural icon is carrying the anti-smoking message too far, it not only rendered M. Hulot's most idiosyncratic characteristic mute, but also make a mockery of the anti smoking message and it's likely to have been counterproductive. If what happened to M. Hulot had occurred in the UK or Righteous America I'd have said 'that's to be expected' but that it occurred in France was a total surprise. No doubt, there was a backlash from Tati fans. I've not heard the outcome, what occurred in the wash-up? BTW, As a kid I saw Mon Oncle not long after the film was released and I was enthralled. I never tire of seeing it.

rjh29 1y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taspo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taspo

hilbert42 1y ago
Right, that's cleared things up. Both the Taspo/Tobacco Card and vending machine capability (cash or credit, top up card, etc.) weren't available when I was there last. I'd reckon the strict ID requirements for Taspo card must have been quite a cultural shock. My recollection was that back then tobacco products were much more freely available than where I was living.
- rjh29 1y ago
  It didn't properly come out until 2008, so until then I suppose schoolchildren could have easily used the machines! Unimaginable in most countries.
  - hilbert42 1y ago
    OK, that settles it, my experience was before 2008. "Unimaginable in most countries." Well, perhaps so these days, but it wasn't at all so when I was a kid. At somewhere between 10 and 12 years old when still in primary school occasionally we kids bought cigarettes on our way home and ducked off somewhere secluded to smoke them. A few shopkeepers wouldn't sell them to us but many would. There weren't many cigarette machines about (they were usually located on railway stations, in theater foyers etc.), but those in use could be operated by anyone including us kids. Moreover, cigarettes were very cheap, they had nothing like the huge taxes on them of today—so cheap we had no difficulty in purchasing them out of our pocket money. Kids smoking was frowned upon by most parents and teachers but it wasn't illegal. That's why we smoked in secluded places where we wouldn't be seen. (Back then, smoking was accepted and considered pretty normal for adults, especially men. Since then attitudes have changed dramatically.) For the record, except for that occasional experimenting as a kid I've never smoked since, nor have I ever had any desire to do so.
  - rkomorn 1y ago
    > Unimaginable in most countries. I guess that also applies to France... because why would we use machines when we could just walk into a shop and buy cigarettes without ID? I remember my much older sister sending me off to buy cigarettes for her when I was maybe 12 and having zero problems. Many of my friends smoked through high school, also with zero problems acquiring cigarettes. So yeah, using machines to buy cigarettes as a kid? Unimaginable for me, but I'm guessing not the way you were imagining it.
    - hilbert42 1y ago
      "…because why would we use machines when we could just walk into a shop and buy cigarettes without ID?" Exactly, I'm not in France but that practice was pretty common in most Western countries not that many decades ago (see my reply to this post). I didn't mention it but where I am (Australia) it also was pretty common for a kid to go to the shops to pick up cigarettes for, say, a parent. When I first went to France decades ago (I've relatives in Paris) I found smoking was even more culturally entrenched than where I am, there were posters everywhere for Gitanes, Gauloises and other cigarettes. In fact, France is the home of many classic posters advertising or showing people smoking, many are so good they're now considered works of art. I've not been to France for some time but I gather in recent years the French's attitude towards smoking has changed dramatically and the practice is now frowned upon culturally—or at least that's my perception from a far. Correct me if I'm wrong. That's not what I'd have expected (anyway, not to such a degree); unlike the puritanical guilt-ridden English, I'd have thought French culture was more resilient. What brought this change to my attention was the recent kerfuffle over the French icon Jacques Tati's M. Hulot where posters on the Métro were censored—M. Hulot is portrayed sans pipe! My immediate reaction was 'sacrilege, the vandal who did that had an unmitigated damn hide—what the Hell's going on in France to allow that to happen?'. You see, I'm a great Tati fan and Jour de fête, Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot and Mon Oncle are some of my most loved films—so the 'desecration' affected me personally. As I've mentioned, I'm a nonsmoker and I applaud the reduction in smoking in recent years but vandalizing a cultural icon is carrying the anti-smoking message too far, it not only rendered M. Hulot's most idiosyncratic characteristic mute, but also make a mockery of the anti smoking message and it's likely to have been counterproductive. If what happened to M. Hulot had occurred in the UK or Righteous America I'd have said 'that's to be expected' but that it occurred in France was a total surprise. No doubt, there was a backlash from Tati fans. I've not heard the outcome, what occurred in the wash-up? BTW, As a kid I saw Mon Oncle not long after the film was released and I was enthralled. I never tire of seeing it.