Eugène Poubelle invented refuse collection, a fact which is celebrated in the French language by adopting his name as the descriptive name for “garbage bin” so it always strikes us as odd that in a country which is historically synonymous with waste collection, we often have difficulty finding somewhere to dispose of ours.
There are often fewer bins in public spaces than would be considered adequate in less civilised countries, but it all seems to work because by and large in the absence of bins, people are in the habit of taking their refuse home with them. We, well Grahame actually to be technically correct, had been on a bit of a tidy up around “our bins”, tied the broken bags after picking up the stray stuff and placed them neatly on top of the lids.
It was an unhappy caravan park caretaker and self appointed guardian of the public purse, who on discovering his handiwork, presumed that it was our mess and explained in no uncertain terms that the only bins near our mooring beneath the sign that welcomed us, were not for our use. Unwilling to believe that we were not responsible, she gave us a large bag and directed us to use the facilities provided behind the school, omitting the bit about where exactly we might find the school were we to comply. Oh Mr Poubelle, how simple life must have been before you came along.
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