Contraband cigarettes here..

"carotte" at metro station Barbes: screen capture

A Paris metro station well-known to be a place where sellers of contraband cigarettes can be found was embellished with a fake "carotte" as the famous tabac sign is known.
During the night of Friday/Saturday some unknown person attached the sign to the wall outside the station, to the amusement of passers-by and the anger of local "buralistes", as tobacconists are called.
In a time when addicts can apparently order cocaine or cannabis by text from local dealers in many big cities, putting up a sign seems a little old fashioned. However, the sale of counterfeit or contraband cigarettes is wide-spread in cities near the borders of countries where tobacco is cheaper and is leading to gang warfare on a scale reminiscent of other drug wars.