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Lovely
florist shop on the avenue de la Motte-Picquet.
The
main street on the Ile St. Louis.
Okay, this
is what that street on Ile St. Louis really
looks |
Saturday, August 25 Some elected officials never cease to amaze me with
their callousness. The mayor of When the city employees who were supposed to deploy it
read the label, they said, “No way!”
The box that the spray comes in warns that it must not be inhaled
without being previously diluted with water because it is toxic and
irritating. What it does is make a place so foul smelling that even
the homeless don’t want to be there. The city employees pointed out that they would need
protective gear in order to spray the Malodore. Then they were told that it was to be used
to chase away the homeless, not the rats, the employees said there are
limits, and this was something they would not do at all. The mayor is Georges Mothron, a member of the UMP ( The city tried the spray at the beginning of August
around some commercial center. It
chased away Sylvie and Dominique, a homeless couple who’d been living
peacefully there, causing no problems, for two years. They had to leave for a few days because
the Malodore hurt their throats and eyes.
But then they returned. The
management of the commercial center, after experiencing the spray the first
time, decided that they don’t want it to be used there anymore. The local representative of the Socialist party
denounced the use of the spray as “a scandalous hunting down of the poor,
contrary to human dignity.” Evidently, this is not the first time the mayor has
tried this sort of thing. In 2005, the
text explaining his “Anti-Begging” project spoke of a “smelly shame” linked
to the presence of the homeless in the city.
The prefecture of the area cancelled the project. Malodore is
intended for use in keeping very drunk people from sleeping in dangerous
places, such as under bridges or near roads.
But the deputy mayor says they will continue to use it in Tom and I went out for a big walk around in the 15th
last night to locate some highly rated restaurants listed in the new Michelen
red guide. The most promising among
them looks like Thierry Burlot, at 8 rue Nicolas Charlet, near the
Pasteur Institute and the Necker children’s hospital. The street itself was a pleasant surprise
for that hospital-laden area – only two blocks long, peaceful and full of
beautiful Haussmannian buildings. Not yet rated in the Michelin guide is a restaurant
next to our St. Jean Baptiste de Grenelle church. The place is evidently under new management
or new ownership, and it has a new name, Le Minzingue (5 place
Etienne Pernet, telephone 01-45-32-48-54).
It looks very promising indeed. The new Michelin guide also rates a couple of our
longtime favorites in the 15th quite highly, La Gauloise and L’Épopée. No surprises there. They also rate Pere Claude, which is
near La Gauloise, very highly. I think
we tried it years ago, and perhaps thought it was too expensive for the
quality. But I guess it is time to go
back and try again. We have some dining out to do! |
