Dog Days

‘GIANT posters have sprung up all over Paris, depicting two pieces of excrement, one large and one small.

Artistic Impression: 5.9

But what does it mean? Is it an ecological protest? Or perhaps a typically acid statement about Bully Bush and Little Tony?

Not at all: the truth lies closer to home. The poster refers to the city’s legendary quantities of merde du chien.

”It is an old joke that Parisians know little about the architecture of their city because they walk along, eyes fixed on the pavement to avoid treading in the excrement.”

Well, so the Telegraph claims. And so, it seems do the French authorities. They have made numerous attempts to deal with the problem, including teams of scooters armed with vacuum cleaners.

Previous posters showed disabled people walking helplessly towards piles of the stuff, and the excrement is said to cause 650 accidents a year as people slip up on it.

Yet the paper concludes that Parisians ”would rather tiptoe along filthy pavements than clean up after their dogs”. Or lift a finger to help the guardians of the free world.

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Posted: 13th, September 2002 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink