Where do I begin!

Paris - most romantic city in the world - so the cliche goes. Sadly, modern opinion tends to disagree. Whatever its status, I'm here, enjoying "La Vie Parisienne". One of the best advantages of running and internet business!

And what I was keen to find out when I first came for a month in November 2007, was how much more "eco-friendly" was Paris/France than the UK? I'm always hearing about how much more environmentally friendly and aware our closest neighbours are. Is there anything to these reports? Let's look at the evidence...

1. Plastic Bags - most supermarkets charge, most Parisiens seem to take their own bags.
   Definite thumbs up!
   
   
2. Recycling - Ive stayed in two flats (my friend moved for the second trip). The first had three seperate bins - general, plastics etc and glass. I also saw billboards promoting the use of the yellow and white bins. In the second flat, however, the attendant who generally looks after the building seems to have locked the recycling bins in a cupboard (I saw them once when it was open). Like us in the UK, they still battle with people's laziness.
   Definite hmmmm...!
   
   
3. Public Transport - this one's easy. Compared to London it's much cheaper to use the Metro (eur1.10). Its about the same for reliability and cleanliness.
   Definite thumbs up!
   
   
4. Pollution - despite a pretty good metro, Paris has very bad traffic. You will notice if you walk anywhere that the fumes can really get nasty.
   A definite thumbs down!
   
   
5. Bikes - if there was one winning reason to see Paris as more "eco" it must be the "Velib" scheme. In hundreds of convenient locations across the city (central and not) you can put a credit card in a machine and rent a bike for 4 euro a day! If you are clever you can even limit this to 1 euro.
   A definite thumbs up!

So overall thats 3 thumbs up, 1 hmmm and 1 thumbs down. I think that compared to China's Dongtan Paris is lagging. But what about other European cities? I always hear good things about Germany and Scandinavia. What's the real deal?

 

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