Garlic, onions and urine ridden pavements – the Parisians decide to sanitise
The wall anti-pipi, left, sprays the offender's urine back onto their trousers
Indeed, the odorous wonders of Paris' pavements are far from the scented delights which diffuse from an English country garden. But the well-known stenches of urine which filtrate through the back alleys and underground passages of Paris are set to meet their toughest obstacles to date.
Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, has launched his most ingenious battle yet to abolish the Parisian tendency of indulging in a hearty session of urinating in public spaces. A modernized version of the street toilet which is open 24 hours a day has been installed in numerous locations across central Paris.
The story goes that Mr Delanoë was greatly disgusted after dozens of young men were seen urinating on walls during the rugby World Cup, despite authorities erecting 62 free-sanisettes – what the Daily telegraph describes as “self-cleaning Tardis-like booths that have replaced the iconic pissoirs.”
Regardless of these efforts to tempt the armies of French ‘leakers’ inside the sanisettes, hygiene workers have to clean an average 56,000 sq meters of urine-splashed surfaces per month — a figure that rises to 65,000 in summer. What’s more, 2,800 people were fined up to 450 euros for urinating in public in 2006.
Certainly, culturally speaking, if you have a country full of young males who have become accustomed to unleashing there male anatomy in public to spray the cars, walls and lamp posts with their excrement, it is very hard to tempt them to do otherwise, even when providing free public toilets.
Now, however, Mr Delanoë believes he has come up with the perfect riposte: le mur anti-pipi. This is a wall, placed deliberately next to the sanisettes, which fires urine directly back at the offender thanks to its undulating curves.
Etienne Vanderpooten, who has helped design the wall and has attempted to combat the problem for the last 25 years, said "the jet of pee is rather oblique. If it meets a sloping surface it is sent back to the trousers."
After the new installation of the vélib, a public bike system, and now with the installation of hundreds of public toilets, Paris may become very cluttered indeed. Paris is known for its brutish romance of whores, grave smells and hairy woman. Now it seems the city is undergoing an attempt to clean up its act.
Is this really a good thing? I rather like the dirty side to Paris, juxtaposed with its inherent beauty.
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