-
May 1: who do French people give muguet to?
We speak to young people in France about the tradition of giving lily of the valley flowers on Labour Day, and how it can be hierarchical between grandmothers, mothers and daughters
-
Robert De Niro surprises Loire village during secret documentary filming
US actor spends three days in Saint-Just-en-Chevalet filming a documentary
-
Can we contest neighbour’s planning permission at their home in France?
There are rules which dictate whether planning permission can be contested and by whom
Stickers lend hand to good neighbours
If you do not use it, lend it... this could be the motto of a service which provides free letterbox stickers for people to “advertise” household items, such as tools or games, which they are happy to share (for free) with neighbours.
The service was launched two years ago by friends Romain Haon-Faure, 30, and Jean-François Rochas-Parrot, 32 and around 3,500 stickers were posted out last year.
Mr Rochas-Parrot said: “When we started to print and send the stickers, we were out of stock in a month. Now, we print more regularly.
“We have orders from all over – even Canada.”
The two hope it will give a better balance between the economy and environment and say sharing boosts social links. “On average, we use a drill only 12 minutes in our lives,” said Mr Rochas-Parrot. “So why not share?”
Stickers can be ordered at lesecolohumanistes.fr.
Several other websites and smartphone apps are available for neighbours to help each other.
The app Nextdoor matches people who need something with the neighbours who can help them, from lending cooking tools to finding a babysitter or someone to run with.
It operates in 2,400 French towns and cities and aims to “create social links and a real community”, said Karim Bassiri, manager of Nextdoor in France.
It is free and also available from a computer at fr.nextdoor.com.
