What changes in France this month

Cigarettes

Smokers will have to dig deeper from Thursday, March 1, as the price of a pack of 20 rises by an average of €1 to around €8.

President Emmanuel Macron has promised that the cost will continue to rise to about €10 before the end of his first term.

Gas

The cost of gas will fall by up to 3% on February's prices.

The cost of gas for central heating will fall 3%, for cooking 1% and for cooking and hot water 1.8%.
Phone number-blocking

From this month, telephone operators must offer customers the option of blocking calls to premium numbers, including 089 numbers and paid-for SMS services.
The blocking option must be made available at no cost to subscribers.

Crit'Air

A total 9.5million Crit-Air anti-pollution stickers have been sold since they were introduced in Janaury 2017 - and, from this month, they will cost less to buy.

The stickers, which are a requirement if motorists want to drive in several French cities, including Paris, Lille, Lyon, Toulouse, and Grenoble, will cost €3.11 instead of €3.70.

With postage costs, that means the price will fall from €4.18 to €3.62.

Airbnb

Anyone who rents out a property in Bordeaux on online rental platforms is now required to register it with the authorities as a commercial enterprise, as the city cracks down on people flouting the legal 120-limit for renting out primary residences.

Three agents will ensure that Airbnb-registered properties in the city are properly registered, authorities in Bordeaux said. They estimate that 8,000 of the 10,000-14,000 rental properties in the city are on the Airbnb website.
Paris already requires Airbnb landlords to register their properties.