I am used to returning from France to relatively inclement weather but, humidity aside, today's is looking to turn out not much different from my last Tuesday as it seems many of the Celcius I was enjoying there have also traveled broadly north and are now visiting these shores. Hurrah!
What strikes me on this occasion is not what there is more of in France and less of here but what I hadn't noticed had been absent from my everyday in France but is unavoidably noticeable by its abundance here in Seaside City.
I am writing, of course, of litter and dog poo. Sad but true. Not just small villages but towns and the two cities I visit, Anguoleme and Perigueux, too, are a lot cleaner and tidier than here.
There are students at university in both these French cities and there is a lot of social housing in each as well, so it isn't a matter of age or of how well-to-do people are. It must just be attitude.
For a citizenry that claims to be so enthusiastic about "the environment", it seems to include a relatively high number of folk who are more than able to overlook the environment in which they actually live and work and which they genuinely can make a difference to the taking care of and improving.
It must be enormously frustrating for parents here who try to educate their children that dropping litter or leaving dog poo about the place is naughty when the children are presented daily with evidence suggesting doing so is quite normal. I have enormous respect for those who do achieve it under these conditions.
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