Observations on Paris - Pt.1

‘Observations on Paris’ – things that they don’t tell you, or that need to be updated. These are not criticisms or critiques, really. Just random observations on things in Paris that make it what it is. And just to be clear, Paris can be fantastic. It can easily be hated by many people, but for those same reason’s, others often love it.

To that end, I will be periodically posting these observations. Feel free to post a comment, just play nice. And remember, I love Paris in the morning…
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It is much dirtier than I would have expected. It must have been much worse when all the trash bins were removed. They were removed because they were being used by mean people to hide bombs.

There are more of these than there are Cafe's.

They have since been replaced by ‘green’ (get it?) transparent bags that are now ubiquitous. And people use them, but the city still has a seamy, gritty, dirty side that I had not expected.

And it is not just the multitude of cigarette butts on the streets.

The city does clean the streets and pick up the trash. At least in the tourist area’s. Sometimes twice a day, as you will find out when you sleep with the window open. They start very early in the morning – lucky for us we are morning people.

I actually think the trash collection and street sweeper is a government make-work program, but that is just me.

I have heard that dog droppings were a problem in the city. While we saw a few samples, and actually ran over one with luggage, it was not a big issue. We even saw locals picking up after their pooches.