Today I wanted to show you a typical parisian garbage can! Not very glamourous eh?! Wouldn't you think that, in a city like Paris, they would try to make them as discrete as possible and melt them into the scenery? Welll... In 1995 we've had a serie of terrorist bombings and most of the bombs were hidden in garbage cans. Therefore very quickly the authorities removed the cans - even in the metro. But as it was not very convenient to keep a city like Paris clean without garbage cans, they came up with this solution: install transparent plastic bags instead of regular trash cans so that big bulky bombs would be more difficult to hide.
when we all thought paris was a place packed with people in fancy big-name clothes and joked that even trash cans in paris would be so much fancier than those in other places, we are hit by the reality *eyes pop out of my head*
ReplyDeletebut well, your provided reason is fair enough. damn those bombers!! x#$%&?!
by the way, i love the style of your blog!! a photo of a city a day tells so much more about the city than a zillion words.
It actually took me a while to figure out that Paris had switched to this type of trash cans because of terrorism. Yes, it is terribly unsightly, but I assume that it's effective.
ReplyDeleteNot very nice looking, but I'm sure that it is necessary. We sometimes have to sacrafice a little beauty for a little peace of mind and security.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing concept Eric. Very well done!!
ReplyDeleteI found your site cliking next blog in the upper right corner and was a great and only surprise. Congratulations. I put Paris daily photo in my Bloglines.
ReplyDeletetellement romantique...
ReplyDeleteMais si pragmatique...
ReplyDeleteAu fait, p'tite pub : mon nouveau blog photo, isido666.blogspot.com/.
Critiques bienvenues !!!
> Annabanana (what a name! - Yes, I know why I visited your site!!). Well "when we all thought Paris was a place packed with people in fancy big-name clothes..." LOL! I am sure some famous clothes designer will come up with a fancy idea to dress these garbage cans!
ReplyDelete> Elisabeth. So far they're effective... Cross your fingers.
> Rock. True! BTW, what happened to your Columbus photo blog???
>dfl. Are you talking about the cans or the blog?
> Englebert. We have a saying in French - that you possibly have in spannish also - "le hasard fait bien les choses" ("La casualidad hace bien las cosas") Don't laugh my Spanish is terrible! Anyway, come back here anytime and thanks for the link.
> Jean-Michel. Romance is everywhere in Paris, even with such terrible garbage cans!
> Isido. Et ben tu ne sais pas dans quoi tu as mis les pieds - et les mains! Mais bravo.
Paris needs to install some transparent art decco garbage cans!
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I cannot access either the blog or the admin panel.
ReplyDeleteI had three blogs on Blogger and all are in the same state - gone.
pretty garbage cans? well, I guess it would be more attractive to have nice garbage cans but when you think about it, it really would be a waste of resources.
ReplyDeletemaybe they should invest in pretty garbage bags! I just started working on a streetscape design project in brooklyn so I understand the limitations of city design. We are not allowed to have any planters on the street, but big garbage cans are okay. hmm.
ReplyDeleteI have been looking for sites like this for a long time. Thank you! » »
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