You can smoke after security at France’s two biggest gateways: Paris Charles de Gaulle keeps indoor smoking rooms in all three terminals, and Paris Orly has outdoor terraces you reach straight from the departure gates. Nice, Marseille, Toulouse and EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse each have open-air smoking areas airside too, so a connection through any of them means a cigarette without re-clearing screening. France’s smoking décret (Décret n° 2006-1386) cleared smoking out of the terminal concourses; airports kept access by putting the smoking areas on airside terraces and in marked zones outside the doors.
Lyon Saint-Exupéry (LYS) is the one regional airport with an indoor smoking room. It sits in Terminal 1 near Gate B02, after security, behind a doorway marked only by a sign about 10 cm square. Terminal 2 has no smoking area past the checkpoint, so smoke at the outdoor areas by the terminal entrances or walk over to the Terminal 1 room.
How French Airport Smoking Works
The décret prohibits smoking in enclosed public spaces. Paris CDG and Lyon kept enclosed indoor rooms; everywhere else the smoking areas moved outdoors, onto patios, balconies and rooftops (espaces fumeurs) at the bigger airports and into kerbside zones by the doors at the smaller ones. The outdoor areas are:
- Airside at Orly, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse and Basel-Mulhouse — no need to exit the secure area
- Landside only at Bordeaux, Nantes, Lille, Strasbourg and Beauvais — outside the terminal doors, before the checkpoint
- Signed “Espace Fumeur” / “Smoking Area”, with ashtrays; CDG marks its rooms with orange signs
- Free to use
- Open to the air — bring a jacket in winter
- Sometimes covered or sheltered from rain, as at Orly’s F gates terrace
The trade-off versus an enclosed room: terraces depend on the weather. A January layover on Orly’s open terrace is colder work than the indoor rooms at CDG or Lyon. For most of the year, the French outdoor areas are perfectly comfortable.
The Major Hubs
Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG). France’s busiest airport, one of Europe’s main long-haul gateways, and the country’s best-served airport for smokers. Indoor smoking rooms sit after security in all three terminals: Terminal 1 on Level 4 (Level 2 has two landside areas by the CDGVAL station), Terminal 2 beside Gate 50D in 2B-2D, between Gates C80/C81 and C82/C83 in 2C, around the L, M and K gates in 2E, downstairs near Gates F21 and F47-56 in 2F, and in 2G, plus Terminal 3 near Gate 11. Orange signs point the way.
Paris Orly (ORY). Renovated and renumbered in 2019; now organized as Orly 1, 2, 3 and 4, all connected airside. Outdoor terraces sit near Gates A11/A12 in Orly 1-2, by the Gate E6 entrance in Orly 3, and past duty free in the F gates area, where the terrace is covered. Because the sectors join up after security, you can walk to whichever terrace is nearest.
Major Regional Airports
Nice Côte d’Azur (NCE). Outdoor terraces after security: Terminal 2 near Gate A13 (below the Canopy Lounge, right of Starbucks) and Gate A00 in the Schengen zone, and near Gate B30 downstairs past passport control in the non-Schengen zone. Terminal 1 has a terrace near Gate A2. Mediterranean weather makes outdoor smoking pleasant most of the year.
Marseille Provence (MRS). Outdoor areas outside the Hall 1 and Hall 4 (MP2) entrances landside, plus an open-air area on the airside near the international departure gates, reached after passport control.
EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL). Open-air areas after security by Gate 82/84 and at Gates 25/27 past passport control, plus a smoking terrace in the Skyview Lounge on Level 4 and forecourt zones landside. The French and Swiss sectors share the same areas.
Toulouse-Blagnac (TLS). Three airside outdoor smoking spots: the Hall A jetty patio near Gates 8/9, a terrace upstairs by Gate 30 in Hall C, and the patios at Gates 60/61 in Hall D. Aerospace-industry hub airport.
Lyon Saint-Exupéry (LYS). The one regional airport with an indoor smoking room, in Terminal 1 near Gate B02 after security, plus outdoor areas by the terminal entrances. Terminal 2 has no smoking area past the checkpoint.
Bordeaux (BOD), Nantes (NTE), Lille (LIL), Strasbourg (SXB) and Beauvais (BVA). All landside-only: marked outdoor zones with ashtrays outside the terminal entrances, used before the checkpoint. None of the five has an airside smoking area.
Smaller Regional Airports (Landside-Only)
France’s smaller regional airports follow the same landside-only pattern as Bordeaux and Lille: a marked outdoor zone outside the terminal doors, used before the checkpoint, with no airside smoking area.
- Atlantic and southwest: Biarritz (BIQ), Pau Uzein (PUF), La Rochelle – Île de Ré (LRH), Poitiers Biard (PIS) and Brest Bretagne (BES)
- Alps and east: Chambéry (CMF) and Grenoble-Isère (GNB)
- South and Occitanie: Toulon Hyères (TLN), Béziers Cap d’Agde (BZR), Perpignan Llabanère (PGF), Carcassonne Salvaza (CCF), Nîmes Garons (FNI) and Rodez Marcillac (RDZ)
- Corsica: Ajaccio Napoléon Bonaparte (AJA), Bastia Poretta (BIA) and Figari Sud-Corse (FSC)
- Central and north: Limoges-Bellegarde (LIG), Tours Loire Valley (TUF), Bergerac-Roumanière (EGC), Dinard Pleurtuit (DNR), Saint-Étienne Bouthéon (EBU) and Châlons Vatry (XCR)
Tips for Smokers at French Airports
- Look for “Espace Fumeur” signs; at CDG the smoking rooms are marked with orange signage
- CDG is the easiest Paris airport for transit smokers, with indoor rooms in every terminal; Orly’s airside terraces are the open-air equivalent
- Bring a jacket if you’re connecting through northern French airports in winter
- Cigarettes in France are among Europe’s most expensive (~€11-13/pack) — the duty-free shops at CDG are often cheaper than buying landside
- Vapes and IQOS go in the same designated smoking areas as cigarettes
- The indoor rooms at CDG and Lyon are the ones to know for cold-weather connections
France Airports Compared: Indoor, Outdoor & After Security
At a glance — which France airports let you smoke after security, in an indoor room, or in an outdoor area: