Vending machine in Belgium

Okay okay, I know: this is a blog about all things French. So what’s the deal with a vending machine in Belgium? I went to Belgium last weekend for a music festival and I feel the need to tell you about this vending machine that was placed at the entrance of a shop. As you can see, there are lots of cigarettes going on in there. This alone surprised me as I remember in Australia, when I worked in a shop, having to ask people to prove they were eighteen (raised from sixteen) before they could buy cigarettes. I guess anyone can walk up to this vending machine and buy a packet no matter how young they are, but perhaps there’s some ID-checking process that somehow happens. Does anyone know?

This particular vending machine is the friend of the teenager: it contains not just cigarettes, but various other things that can help a teenager get through those difficult years — condoms, for a start. I think that’s a great idea: no more embarrassing moment at the checkout required, but safe sex is more likely. Rizla papers are also in there (along with bags of tobacco) for anyone wanting to roll their own…erm…’cigarette’. Bizarrely, razors for women are available, which might be handy if a date has gone well, he’s rolling a ‘cigarette’ back at his house with a Rizla, and she just realised she forgot to shave. She can pick up the condoms at the same time just in case things get a bit steamy later on.

And way down the bottom there, next to the tobacco and the Rizla papers, are postage stamps. Postage stamps? Are these not a bit square for the average teenager exploring sex, drugs and shaving? I reckon they are. I can only presume it’s for those ‘crazy ex’ types who decide to write that scathing letter late at night when everyone else is either rolling ‘cigarettes’, shaving bikini lines, or opening a packet of condoms.