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Les Bar-Tabacs (tobacco shop)
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more about
types of stores
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by David Applefield
Le tabac plays a curious but dynamic role in daily French life. Le tabac, clearly marked with a red elongated diamond shaped sign hanging in the street, has a monopoly from the State to sell cigarettes, cigars and tobacco. You cannot buy cigarettes anywhere else in France.
In exchange for this privilege, the tabac, which is usually also a café, performs certain services at face value, such as selling postage stamps. If you need some stamps for letters or cards, you can easily buy them from the cashier in a tabac. Don´t expect total cooperation, however, if you want postal rates for the Ivory Coast. That´s not their job. You will find a nearby mail box outside every tabac (always yellow and usually divided into two parts-Paris and its suburban codes 75, 77, 78, 91, 92, 93, 94 and the rest of the world). A "carnet" of stamps is a unit of ten basic letter stamps for France (often sold in little booklets or on convenient, self sticking-auto-collant-pages). One basic letter stamp (for France or any of the EU countries) currently costs 3 FF.
Single envelopes and writing paper can also be purchased in a tabac. This is handy when you have to mail something off in a hurry. You have envelope, stamp, and mailbox at hand - but you have to know the postal rates yourself.
Le tabac also handles, in many cases, off-track betting called PMU.
Le tabac sells Lottery tickets (LOTO), which has grown and developed rampantly in the last few years, inspired by the American instant "scratch and lose" series of game cards. Some of the games are Poker, Black Jack, Millionnaire, Banco, and usually cost 10 FF a card.
Le tabac sells timbres fiscaux as well. This is important in that if you happen to get a parking ticket, you pay for it by purchasing a timbre fiscal (State Stamp Tax) and paste one portion to the return portion of the ticket and keep the other half as your proof of payment. Similarly, you often need a timbre fiscal when you renew your carte de séjour and process other official documents. Le tabac sells this, although they are frequently out of precisely the denomination you need and you have to walk until you find a better-stocked tabac.
If you own a car, you´ll soon find out that your annual car registration tax is paid in December at any tabac in the département in which you live upon presentation of your carte grise and ID. You´ll receive a vignette sticker for your windshield. Failure to do this in the prescribed time results in a 10% increase and a stiff fine.
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