Put down that . . .

France has this really great law that bans you from talking on your cell phone while driving. I'm sure many studies have proven that it is very dangerous to talk on your cell phone while driving.

Hopefully soon they will ban smoking while driving. I've seen mothers driving their kids to school while puffing one half out the window, truck drivers taking both hands momentarily off the wheel to light one up, and even a guy on a motorcycle toking away with one hand while maneuvering with the other. I mean, look at this guy in the picture, he isn't even trying to look at the road! (Okay, okay, I just got this picture someplace on the internet, and the guy isn't even French, unless he is just taking a holiday in the UK somewhere, and very recently left a military establishmen).

This whole smoking thing really baffles me. It's not just people smoking while driving, they do it everywhere. Walking their kids to the door of the school, sitting at the outdoor playplace at McDo, while helping their kids play on the monkey bars at the park, even while pushing their babies in strollers. Ladies toting Louis Vuitton bags or sporting a great pair of Chanel sunglasses puffing away in the faces of their children. Teenagers lighting up their lives on the way to ballet class, and old ladies grasping for air enjoying their golden years.

My kids keep asking me why everyone here smokes. I have yet to think up a clever response, for now I just say "Smoking is bad! You can get cancer and your breath always stinks and your teeth turn yellow and you have trouble breathing and you can lose all your money buying cigarettes and nobody will like you if you are stinky and dying!"

Geez, I wonder what I am going to tell them about cell phones?