EUROPE : France Breaks a Habit, but Not Without a Fight : New law bans smoking in most public places. Nonsmokers rejoice, but die-hards see it as affront to their individual liberties.

France’s passionate romance with tobacco and smoking dates back to the 16th Century, when a young diplomat named Jean Nicot introduced the plant into the royal court as a miracle cure.

After trying it herself, Queen Catherine de’ Medici endorsed tobacco as a treatment for migraine. Tobacco was soon the rage of the court. Jean Nicot was feted as the discoverer of the new drug “nicotine.”

More than four centuries later, perhaps delayed by the fact that the government owns the tobacco industry, France is taking its first tentative steps to break the nicotine habit. On Sunday, a new law takes effect that bans smoking in most public places, ranging from high school courtyards to train stations.

Under the same law, which carries heavy fines for offenders, cafe and restaurant owners have been required to provide nonsmoking sections for customers and install ventilation systems to clean the air. Employers are required to segregate their smoking and nonsmoking personnel.

The new law has been a blessing for air-conditioning salespeople, who report orders backed up for months. It is also good news for nonsmoking foreign visitors, repulsed by the cloud of blue smoke that seems to hover permanently over most French gathering spots.

A majority of the French, according to recent polls, seem to endorse the anti-smoking measures, modeled on similar laws long on the books in the United States and most European countries.

However, for the die-hard 40% here who view smoking as an expression of individual liberty, if not a sacred human right, the ban is a declaration of war. Many of them blame the United States for launching the anti-smoking movement, which they see as harsh and puritanical.

“It is an unacceptable law, as are all totalitarianisms,” said historian Pierre Miquel, 71, reflecting the hard line.

“Look, about 98% of my customers smoke,” said the somewhat more moderate Jean Piek, 40, owner of the Cafe de la Gare in the northern Paris suburb of Sannois. “I will do what I can to conform. I might put in a little nonsmoking corner. But I won’t throw my customers out for smoking.”

Some shops and cafes, declaring open defiance, have mounted banners on their walls proclaiming their establishments as smoking havens.

Moreover, unions and organizations representing the nation’s police forces say that the law is unenforceable and that they have better things to do than scold and fine smokers.

“It all seems a little ridiculous to me,” said Daniele Thiery, spokeswoman for the national union of police chiefs in an interview with the newspaper France-Soir. “If we continue to regulate all the aspects of social life and demand that the police be responsible, there would be no stopping anywhere.”

Meanwhile, chefs at some of France’s most celebrated restaurants fear that the ban will chase away their customers. “The law is a fraud, an idiotic law,” raged Joel Robuchon, owner and chef at Jamin restaurant in Paris. “Some of my customers have sworn to me that if one can no longer smoke a cigar, they will not come. A cigar is the celebration of a great meal.”

However, Bernard Loiseau, chef at the celebrated La Cote-d’Or restaurant in Saulieu, has sided bravely with the no-smoking camp. “Great French cuisine demands that one not smoke while he eats,” Loiseau said.

France already pays a morbid price for its smoking addiction. Last year, officials estimated, 54,000 people died in France of lung cancer and other ailments directly linked to smoking.

Despite bans on some cigarette advertising and a modest government-sponsored anti-smoking publicity campaign, the number of smokers has remained steady in France. Critics of the slow-starting campaign contend that the government has never put its heart into the effort since the French tobacco industry is state-owned, earning the government $7 billion annually.

However, profits from cigarette sales do not cover the estimated $9 billion the government says it spends each year treating smoking-related diseases.

Despite widespread opposition to the new ban, supporters of the law are optimistic that the long-term result will be a reduction in the national habit.

“It’s an excellent law,” said Philippe Bouchet, 42, director of the French National Anti-Smoking Committee. “For the first time in France it offers protection to the nonsmoker. People understand that tobacco is bad for the health. France has understood this. The French are no more stupid than anyone else.”