Gitanes cigarettes are rolled with darker tobacco, or bruns and is available with or without filter. Gitanes means "Spanish gypsy women", and so, a silhouette of a gypsy woman with tambourine appears as the box art.
Production of Gitanes cigarettes has been recently halted in France, with one factory remaining operational in the Netherlands. This is mainly due to the rise on tobacco levies imposed by the French government in the wake of health advice, which has forced the price of French cigarettes up to the level of those from the USA, with the more aggressively promoted brands such as Marlboro now taking the majority market share. The logo was used for the album Shades by JJ Cale, replacing the dancing gypsy woman with a guitar player.
