Is the pipe really a French passion?

Beret on the head, baguette under the arm and pipe in the mouth: caricatures of the French are never far away. But is the pipe really a French symbol? Let us try to take stock.

The pipe and France

It is an attachment that has lasted many years. From the Poilus of the First World War to scientists, thinkers and even a few public figures, the pipe has always remained part of French custom. Consuming passion or cultural habit, it is hard today to tell the two apart. According to the survey carried out by Sphères, 76,202 pipes were sold in France in 2018 alone. In the same year, however, only 239 tonnes of pipe tobacco were consumed, against 2,910 tonnes in 1990.

Although the pipe had known more glorious days as recently as 30 years ago, the interest it arouses endures, and there are a great many major French pipe brands on the market. From Jean-Yves Cousteau to José Bové, a number of French public figures have been associated with the pipe. Many women, and increasingly young smokers, are seen with a pipe in the street as much as in private. The pipe remains a vintage object that is still of its time.

More than an institution: a genuine calling

In France the pipe has a strongly literary dimension, somewhere between poetry and philosophy. The craft side of the object itself also points to a traditional expertise that is not learnt at school but handed down from master to apprentice, directly among the master pipe makers. It is nevertheless quite possible to make a pipe yourself. The briar pipe is also a source of French pride, notably through the workshops based in Saint-Claude, the capital of the pipe. These are objects that are often handed down from one generation to the next. They are surrounded by a nostalgic, even sentimental symbolism.

The Covid-19 health crisis turned people back on themselves and towards the essentials. Pipe smokers, for their part, describe their pipe as a moment suspended in time, a break in the day that they say takes them back to basics.