Gauloises is a brand of cigarette of French manufacture. It is produced by the company Imperial Tobacco following their acquisition of Altadis in January 2008.
Traditional Gauloises were short, wide, unfiltered and made with dark tobaccos from Syria and Turkey which gave off a strong and distinctive smell.
Gauloises Blondes Blue Cigarettes
Gauloises cigarettes first appeared in 1910. The brand is most famous for its cigarettes’ strength, especially in its original unfiltered version and 40 years later filtered Gauloises cigarettes appeared. In 1984 the brand was relaunched to an American type blend of light tobacco and renamed Gauloises Blondes. Lower tar versions of Gauloises cigarettes are also available, sold in red and golden/white packets.
Between the World Wars the smoking of Gauloises in France was considered patriotic and an affiliation with French “heartland” values. The brand was associated with the cigarette-smoking poilu (a slang term for the French infantryman in the trenches) and the resistance fighters during the Vichy Regime. Their slogan is “Liberté toujours” (Freedom forever). The brand was also linked to high-status and inspirational figures representing the worlds of art (e.g. Pablo Picasso) and the intellectual elite (e.g. Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Jean Baudrillard) and music (Jim Morrison). Henri Charrière, French author and convict, repeatedly references the smoking of Gauloises in his autobiography Papillon. George Orwell also mentions that he smokes the brand in Down and Out in Paris and London. This, together with the romantic associations of France, made Gauloises brand popular among some writers and artists: Ian Fleming’s hero, James Bond, smoked Gauloises (but Bond’s preference remained for his custom-ordered cigarettes from Morland’s Special Blend of Grosvenor Street); in practically every story and novel written by Julio Cortázar set in Paris, the protagonists smoke Gauloises; they also appear in the Roman Polanski film The Tenant and in John le Carré’s book Smiley’s People. John Lennon was a noted smoker of Gauloises Bleues. Frank O’Hara in his poem “The Day Lady Died” writes of going to “the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre” in New York and casually asking “for a carton of Gauloises.” Smoking Gauloises is also mentioned in the teen series Gossip Girl. The helmet of French comic strip character Asterix was based on the cigarette logo. Fictional Detective Sergeant Mort Cooperman smokes Gauloises in several mystery novels by Richard “Kinky” Friedman.
Smoking Gauloises was also promoted as a contribution to the national good: a proportion of the profits from their sale was paid to the Régie Française des Tabacs, a semi-governmental corporation charged with controlling the use of tobacco, especially by minors, and directing its profits towards socially beneficial causes. The designers of the traditional Gauloise packet reinforced national identity by selecting a peculiarly French shade of blue (like the blues later used in the work of French artist Yves Klein).
