Bonjour M'sieur

Begging...

I am quite amazed at the number of beggars and homeless people I see in Paris...or at least in the part of Paris I am living. Perhaps the downtown and tourist spots are the prime panhandling areas, but I do also observe various individuals or gatherings of homeless, beggars in other parts of the city. I do not remember this from my previous visits. Maybe it is the current economy, or maybe the longer I stay, the more layers of the city I observe. As the new becomes familiar, my eye sees more things.

It is not uncommon to have to step over a person sleeping in the subway, especially if I am going in to work early. At the Gard De Nord station there are some regulars, same clothes, same spot, same bowl. Every day. (They do not seem to take off the month of August)

Outside my apartment there a man who lives in one of the indentations along the front of the building, where the apartment meets the sidewalk. What was once an architect's design feature now provides a partial shelter for a homeless man. I do not know his name, but he is unfailingly polite and very neat. He always greets me with a smile and "Bonjour M'sieur". I will call him Bonjour for short.

The French seem very tolerant of these kinds of activities. Near my office there has been an encampment of families who were evicted from some apartments. They have strung some canvas across the sidewalk near the local welfare office and have lived there since early July. On Blvd Beaumarchais, near Place Republique is an encampment of people who are in the country illegally. They are demanding official working papers. Both these places seem to have no trouble with either residents or the local Gendarme.

For the purpose of this blog, I need to inform you that in Paris, once a week there is a special garbage collection for heavy goods, old furniture, used appliances etc. Bonjour takes advantage of these and gathers furniture, bedding, whatever and uses it for his "home". The problem of course is that by definition, his home is where the collectors pick up the trash, so while the police do not bother him, once a week he loses all his furniture. As you can see from the pictures below, his weekly living space varies depending on the goods disposed of the previous week.

The first picture it was a pretty poor week, so his home is mostly cardboard.

This week he had a mattress and a lawn chair.

This week just a piece of foam and a play table. This is typical, during the day the bed is made and the SVP sign and dish are placed beside.

Good week..... foam, chair, potted plants....


In her blog, Diane talks of a "wee house". I guess if you stretched the definition, Bonjour has a "wee house", or, as this is Paris, a "wee apartment". And he is very eco, as he is a recycler. He always seems to have money in his dish, and today I even noticed one kind person had placed two apples and a banana on his bed. As of yet I have not made a contribution, but I feel a little guilty, as if somehow writing this blog is invading his privacy, or exploiting his situation. I will perhaps give him a small royalty and drop a few of Euro into his dish tomorrow on the way to the Airport.