Every year at about this time, large men in pairs make their way through Paris apartment buildings. A little intimidating, but they are just the garbage men, mailmen, police or firemen trying to "sell" their calendars to round off the year.
This year the Mairie [City Hall] of the city of Paris has sent out this notice to every address:
Soliciting in buildings
The solicitation of tips, gifts or the sale of calendars by the agents of the city of Paris is forbidden.
Those who claim to be such agents, correctly or incorrectly, should be shown out, and Parisians do not need to respond to such demands.
Our concierge is particularly fierce with them since we had a lot of burglaries a couple of years ago. They don't bother me. But the calendars are really worthless except as souvenirs. I like the kind with big squares you can scribble in, and always bring mine back from the States.
An odd touch in this secular country is that these calendars have saints' names for every day. Until quite recently, and since the French Revolution, French law stated: "Only names used in the different calendars, and those of persons known from ancient history, may be used as given names in birth registrations; and it is forbidden to public officers to admit any others." I suppose the calendars' names were originally supposed to serve as sources of inspiration for parents, as well as reminders of when to celebrate friends' and families' saints' days. Nowadays, Mathis and Océane are among the twenty most common names in France for boys and girls-- both names that were considered illegitimate and banned before 1993. It seems quaint that the firemen's and mailmen's calendars still list saints Damase, Léocadie, Silouane and Rogatien.
"The garbagemen of your town wish you a good and happy New Year."
Hi Sedulia !
The note by the City Hall specifically states that one is discouraged from purchasing year-end calendriers and suchlike from les agents de la Mairie de Paris.
Since this policy was put into place, 'way back during Jacques Chirac's terms as Mayor, it has been interpreted to mean "don't buy calendars from the garbage collectors and streetsweepers". The reason given is that salaries for them are fair and don't require a nudge at Christmastime. This whole issue has been the subject, at recurring intervals, of articles in the press for the past twenty years or so.
Firemen and postal workers are not "agents of the City of Paris" by any means !
Lumping the garbage collectors, the firemen, and the postal workers into the same bag is unfair, in Amerloque's view.
Firemen who sell calendars prior to Christmas are doing so legally and honorably. They must wear their uniforms when they come around in the evening and knock on the door. Same for the postal workers.
It is an honorable French tradition.
Best,
L'Amerloque
Posted by: L'Amerloque | 08 December 2006 at 10:56
Hi,
I'm not 100% sure that this notice is really from the townhall and really legal.
It's a kind of custom and you have to keep in mind that the postman is the one that can give you some little help to do a little quick task in your home that you cannot do alone but for free if he knows that you have thinked to it for christmas.
For the firemens, it's more honorific. They save our lives and according to me aren't paid enough for that task.
The problem with this in such a bic city as Paris is that there may be some fake workers that abuse of the ederly at the christmas period...
Posted by: Flip | 10 December 2006 at 10:57
Well, I always buy the calendars. I would just feel mean if I don't. I send them on to the States where they must create a sensation in deepest Louisiana.
Posted by: Sedulia | 10 December 2006 at 20:27