Paris Journal 2009 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Update on the green algae problem in Brittany: The
tension is mounting. André Ollivro,
spokesperson for Stop the Green Tide, made a police report after bales of
straw were dumped in front of his house.
Previously, he had received a death notice by courrier, and a cartload
of manure was dumped in front of his door. Before you start to think that
American farmers would never do such things, let me tell you that a scientist
named Bob Laughon, a colleague of mine when I worked for a research
institute, once had to present a public briefing at a town in the north woods
of Wisconsin. His presentation was
about the project that we were working on, involving site studies to try to
find a safe place for a high-level nuclear waste repository a half-mile
underground. Wisconsin’s granite
formations were of interest at that time. The local farmers didn’t like
the idea at all, so while Bob was making his presentation at the town hall,
some of them dumped cow manure all over his rental car, which he still had to
drive for several hours to get back to the airport. Bob was very cool about
it. He always reminded me of the
Marlboro man. Tough. Unflappable. I don’t recall that any of us
ever received death notices by courrier, but it was a large project; I may
not have heard about everything. Prime Minister Fillon visited
Saint-Michel-en-Grève yesterday and affirmed that the pollution from the
green algae bloom presents a health danger.
“A study that we ordered has demonstrated the toxicity,” he said, in
which the “level of hydrogen sulfide can be lethal in several minutes.” Roselyne Bachelot, the Health
Minister for France, and Prime Minister Fillon announced at a round-table
with local officials three steps that will be taken: 1. The French government will take charge
of the clean-up of the beaches most affected by the bloom. 2. An inter-ministerial mission will be
started which, in three months, will come up with a plan of action. “We are going to experiment with the
clean-up of the algae in the middle of the ocean in winter, to avoid the proliferations
[on the beaches],” promised the Prime Minister. 3. Finally, the Prime Minister promised
“the experimentation of new politics” in the region. That one is probably the biggest challenge. The local groups remain dubious
because they think it will take an “agricultural revolution” to resolve the
problem. Of course Bruno Le Maire, the
Agriculture Minister, refuses to blame the farmers, but admits that they must
talk to the farmers about doing more to limit the nitrates from the pig farms
and fertilizer applications. My fellow southwest Floridians
will be happy to know that there will be more about green algae in tomorrow’s
journal. My apologies to everyone
else, but we are fascinated by this subject. At least the weather has
improved. In most of France, the brief
heat wave ended yesterday. It was only
a day and a half long, thank heavens.
Today the weather is nice, or as they say here, the sweetness has
returned. I watered all the balcony
plants today, and applied no nitrates whatsoever. Last night we took a walk to the
end of the rue du Théâtre to check on a couple of restaurants we like. Both were still closed for vacation, and
one of them has changed names, décor, and menu. The Bayadere, alas, is gone. That’s too bad; I really liked the guys who
ran that restaurant. They were among
the French people who liked to talk to us about American politics. I hope they sold the business at a handsome
profit. We continued up the rue Saint
Charles until we reached the avenue Suffren.
We’d planned on going a bit farther, but it was starting to rain just
a little, so we decided to stay on Suffren so there would be plenty of places
we could duck into in the case of a downpour. The downpour never came. We went back and forth on the avenue de la
Motte-Picquet, trying to decide where to eat, finally choosing just to go to
the neighborhood brasserie at the Commerce park for a very simple meal. Today it is back to work, work,
work. We’ll be at it all weekend and
Monday, then it will be time to send another packet to New York. Hopefully, another packet from New York
will arrive on Tuesday. |
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Louvre’s Pavilion de Sully.
Bas relief of Victor Hugo on the side of the Comédie-Française
which has been on the rue Richilieu since 1799. The theater was rebuilt in 1900 after a bad
fire. |
