Last Gasp for a Gallic Symbol: French Kick the Gauloise Habit

They drink half as much red wine as they used to, barely anyone wears a beret, the bidet has been banished from their bathrooms ... and now they've stopped making Gauloises. Le pays, as the French do not say, is going to les chiens.

The Franco-Spanish cigarette firm Altadis confirmed yesterday that it was closing down the last factory in France still turning out its near-mythical dark tobacco brands, and moving production to Alicante to be "closer to the consumer".

The plant, in the northern city of Lille, once produced 12bn pungent Gauloise and Gitane "brunes" a year, but consumption of France's favourite gasper has slumped as light-tobacco brands such as Marlboro and Camel have come to dominate the market.

Lauded in songs, featured in films, dragged on by such inveterate addicts as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge Gainsbourg, choked over in cafes from Cannes to Calais, Gauloises and Gitanes were as much a symbol of Gallic identity as baguettes and Bordeaux wine.

But the cigarettes, launched in 1910, began falling victim to the slick marketing campaigns and perceived stylishness of US brands in the 1980s: from an 81% market share in 1978, "brunes" fell to 50% in 1985 and a bare 20% today. They are now seen as embarrassingly old-fashioned, unless you are over 60, persist in wearing a beret, and live in a romantic but remote village in the south of France, or in Spain, where old habits die hard.

The cigarettes have also been hit by a recent government drive to cut smoking: a string of swingeing increases in tobacco duty last year means France has now become the third most expensive country in Europe to be a smoker, after Britain and Norway, with cigarettes costing more than €5 (£3.42) a pack. The average price in Britain is £4.50.

While France remains a nation of dedicated puffers - according to the latest figures, 32% of all 26- to 75-year-olds are regular smokers, as are 37% of 12-25s - it seems very few of them want to be be seen with a Gitane in their mouths.

The 450 workers at Altadis's Lille factory, most of whom have taken early retirement or found other jobs within the company or in the region, will watch the last Gauloise made in France roll off the production line this morning. For once, as Le Figaro remarked yesterday, it really will be the end of an era.