Why have the French abandoned their cafés?

The NYT has a longish article about how business has plummeted in cafés in France. Go ahead, read it, and see how long it takes you to figure out what's causing the problem. There are many colorful sentences about how sad it is that the cafés are deserted. But why? Some café owner is quoted saying "People fear the future, and now with the banking crisis, they are even more afraid," and there a vague reference to "changing attitudes, habits and now a poor economic climate," but how did that explain the sudden "free fall" in business?

Finally, I got to this:

[O]n Jan. 1 of this year... France extended its smoking ban to bars, cafes and restaurants....

Before, clients would go inside a cafe, have a coffee, a cigarette and another coffee. But now they go out to smoke, and sometimes they do not come back....

And then there's this:

[T]hose who drink are newly wary of the local police, who now hover near the bar, especially at night, to test the sobriety of drivers....

So, there it is. Your café culture is inconsistent with the safety world you have chosen.

***

Meanwhile, politicians in Madison, Wisconsin want to impose a smoking ban on the whole state, and local media blame "the powerful Tavern League lobby" for opposing it. Perhaps the NYT could do a sympathetic article on the traditional tavern culture of the charming state of Wisconsin. Oh, wait, they already did that article, last week. It was about what a bunch of drunkards Wisconsinites are and how the culture needed to be destroyed.

Relocate to France, and it all looks so different.