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| Europe |
| Marseille: It smells like perfumed |
| 2003-06-17 |
| Via Best Of The Web on WSJ MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - City cleaners are spraying streets in the French port of Marseille with lemon grass perfume to get rid of the stench from piles of rubbish that have been festering under a hot sun for two weeks. Refuse collectors returned to work Tuesday after a 14-day strike over pension reforms and city cleaners were battling to clear up an estimated 8,000 tonnes of garbage whose stench has attracted rats in droves. "It's been awful. The smell has been unbearable and the streets were disgusting with rotting rubbish strewn all over them. Life hasn't been very easy," said a spokeswoman at the municipal services department of Marseille Town Hall. "We occasionally add a bit of lemongrass to disinfecting products when cleaning up after an outdoor market, but this time we're adding it in much bigger doses and using it everywhere." "It's a gentle, hygienic smell and it doesn't cause problems for asthmatics in hot weather like some products," she added. Residents of Marseille, swelteringly hot this month, grew so furious at the inescapable pong that they set rubbish heaps ablaze, keeping firemen working round the clock. France has been hit by a wave of public sector strikes this month over the center-right government's plans to make people work longer before they can claim a state pension. Welcome to Chiracville |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #7 Anybody remember the connection:filth+rats=Black Death. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-06-18 07:36:06 |
| #6 Alaska Paul: True - but after that bit of nastiness they're next to walk. Can't blame 'em either. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2003-06-17 18:20:37 |
| #5 It's been awful. The smell has been unbearable and the streets were disgusting And how is this different from the regular Marseille? How could they tell? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2003-06-17 18:18:48 |
| #4 Thank God that the Marseille Fire Brigade chaps were not on strike at the time! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-06-17 17:41:14 |
| #3 So when are the cleaners going on strike over having to clean all this stuff up from the last strike? "Lemongrass. Manly, yes. And the rats love it too!" |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-06-17 17:18:45 |
| #2 This is what Utopia is, California please take notice. |
| Posted by: wills 2003-06-17 16:21:27 |
| #1 So when are the cleaners going on strike over having to clean all this stuff up from the last strike? "Lemongrass. Manly, yes. And the rats love it too!" |
| Posted by: tu3031 6/17/2003 5:18:45 PM |