Tobacco, Hotels, and Etiquette

[BriarWolf]

So I have a bit of an odd question, and this seemed the best place as any to ask it. I am currently working on a novel set against the backdrop of 1920s Paris. Now a pivotal early scene is the protagonist roaming a boulevard only to discover his cigarette case is empty, and so he idly ducks into a hotel he had been passing in the hope of finding some at the desk. While in the lobby, he notices a lady attempting to light her own cigarette, but is without matches. So he offers a light and the plot rolls from there. This is all contingent on the main character realistically expecting to find cigarettes in a hotel lobby, along with a lady of refined yet rebellious tendencies (a widowed White Russian emigre) smoking a cigarette in said lobby. The shift in social convention following the Great War muddies the issue. I'm running on half remembered general knowledge on tobacco and the etiquette involved.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most upscale hotels had a cigar/tobacco counter in the lobby, much like the little drug-and-sundry stands you find in hotel lobbies today. At the very least, he could buy a pack at such a counter.