Faeces splattered on the pavement. Puddles of urine collecting on the street. Piles of rubbish mounting on roads.
It’s not exactly what comes to mind when thinking about Paris.
Visitors of the once-venerated city, described in gorgeous meter by the countless poets who travel to France’s capital for inspiration, are increasingly complaining about conditions in the city, especially on social media.
One video showing faeces on the streets alongside piles of discarded rubbish, was shared to social media with the caption: ‘The architecture, the history, the magic? It’s real. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say it also smells kinda funky, and the streets can be really dirty.’
Another showed a tourist walking across the Pont du Carrousel bridge in the centre of Paris, which was uploaded with the caption: ‘I don’t know if it’s just us wondering, but why does Paris stink like pee everywhere.’
And a third showed mounds of trash in front of the eastern side of the Palais Garnier, a world famous opera house, as well as rats scurrying across the street and homeless people sleeping in the open.
In recent years, the city has been forced to contend with striking bin men leading to unsavoury images of piles of rubbish in the streets. One expert pointed to the apparent propensity of French men to use streets as their own personal loos.
Nicolas Fieulaine, a professor of social psychology at the University of Lyon, told the BBC in 2023: ‘In the French imagination, and i’m not sure it’s the case anywhere else, public urination is an option that seems available.
‘[It] doesn’t call a person’s moral character into question.’
Fieulaine said the history of France’s obsession with public urination began with the early 19th century public health movement in Paris, which saw massive scientific and institutional reforms in urban areas that aimed to improve the broad quality of life for French citizens.
While it did end up improving public health, the professor said it also made public urination a ‘taboo’.
This has in turn made it attractive for men who want to feel ‘power over public spaces.’
‘it conveys a sense of freedom.. which excludes women.
‘It’s a powerful form of appropriation. Urinating somewhere is about marking one’s territory.’
Another problem appears to be waste management in the city.
The Greater Paris area is home to around 7 million people. And every year, an estimated 17.4million people visit.
All of these people leave behind an estimated 3.3million tons of waste every year.
And experts have said the ageing infrastructure in the city simply isn’t able to keep up.
Jean Dupont, a Paris-based waste management specialist, told the What Is Green Living blog: ‘The infrastructure hasn’t evolved in tandem with the city’s growing population and increasing consumption patterns. This mismatch creates bottlenecks, especially during peak tourist seasons.’
There is also a nationwide problem with attitudes towards recycling, according to statistical data.
While the average EU nation recycles 47% of its waste, France recycles just 28%.
A 2021 study found that in Paris, just 60% of residents consistently sort their rubbish, with many citing confusion over the sorting system as a primary reason not to properly recycle.
As a result, items that could have been recycled often end up in refuse bins that pile up in the streets.
Paris has also seen a swathe of labour strikes over the past few years.
Last year, Paris’ binmen threatened to go on strike during the Olympics, raising the spectre of piles of stinking trash on the streets during the Games.
Walkouts threatened to start collective action in May and continue from July 1 to September 8, the CGT union branch representing binmen warned. This period included the Olympic Games, which ran from July 26 to August 11.
Refuse workers in the Paris region demanded an extra 400 euros (£340) per month and a one-off 1,900-euro (£1,625) bonus for those working during the Olympics.
And the year prior, a three-week strike by rubbish collectors against President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pensions reform saw more than 10,000 tonnes of waste piled in Paris streets at its height.
Images of the heaps of trash, some mounting several metres high, were seen around the world.
