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Dumpster Diving On The Rise In Paris

We were in Paris last week, and the first thing that struck us (apart from just how the locals manage to balance while enjoying their PDAs on the clunky Metro) was just how expensive everything was. The cheapest croque monsieur we came across was €8 ($10). Even a coffee set us back €4 a pop.

At the time, looking at the bustling cafes and the rammed shops, we assumed that France had somehow avoided the whole global recession thing, but an article in the Times has made us realise life isn’t as easy over there as it looked. In fact, according to a government report last week, scavenging is on the up around the capital.

”Glanage”, as it’s called, is already a French tradition, where peasants would forage for leftover crops in the fields after the harvest. But that was in the Middle Ages.

It’s not that shocking, we suppose – London has an ever-growing community of freegans and dumpster divers. But, according to reports, the French are seeing this as a sign of growing poverty, with kindly shop owners leaving out the eggs on top, so people can get to them undamaged.

Of course, it might be an idea to drop the prices in the first place… but who wants to spoil this living tableau of fraternité?

[Photo: Yahoo]