Environmental innovation in France

One of the problems with a great climate is that you never know what will grow there.

Unfortunately, through global commerce, and just plain carelessness, "alien" species have been introduced, that proliferate wildly, to the detriment of the environment.

One example seen here is a giant reed, which looks a bit like bamboo (which, although introduced, is not a problem).  This reed grows abundantly in drainage ditches, clogging them, and blocking sight lines along roads.  As a result, municipalities have to fight a constant war against them.  Here the reeds have been mowed down, but they'll be back!

Here's another one, the prickly pear cactus, seen here growing at the roadside.  The cactus is native to the Americas, but was spread around the world, primarily to use as fencing before the advent of barbed wire.  It is a problem in Australia and Asia (not so much in Europe).

In one of life's little ironies, a cactus moth was successfully used as a biological control agent in the Caribbean, but became a little too successful, and is now considered an invasive pest in areas where the cactus is a native species.  The moral of the story?  Be careful what you import.  See also the story of the Cane Toad in Australia and Purple Loosestrife in Ontario.

I went for a bike ride today from Meze east along the N113 to Bouzigues.  As I was leaving Meze, I ran into a convoy of super-jumbo trucks bearing the blades for wind turbines.  They were coming off of the autoroute at the Sete exit, and travelling west to the Villeveyrac area via the N113.

They were quite a sight, as each blade is probably 25 m long.  They are transported on a truck, which carries the base of the blade.  Its tail is carried on a separate bogie, unconnected to the truck, except by the blade itself.  The whole kit and kaboodle moves in a convoy, complete with police escort.

So how do they get around the rond points?  In this case, backwards (ie counterclockwise).  The rear end of the blade is on a bogie that can actually be steered around corners, and is controlled by radio from a car that follows immediately behind.  It was quite a sight, as the blade was missing the  lampposts by mere centimeters!  In typically french fashion, and notwithstanding the police presence, impatient motorists started following the blade counterclockwise around the rond point.  I watched six of these behemoths negotiate their way through the narrow streets of Meze.  There is obviously a market for wind power here.

While the wind power issue may be very advanced in France, regrettably, the same cannot be said for their bike paths.  Here is the one I was on today.  It may not be obvious from the picture, but the quality of the trail is extremely poor.  There are large rocks littering the way, and very little signage.  In fairness, the signs do indicate that the trail is currently being developed, but my advice is, bring tools and a pump!  On the other hand, the landscape through which the trails pass is unsurpassed.  Today's ride took me through the east end of the Etang de Thau where I saw the running of the Bream (fish so abundant you could scoop them up with a bucket) and countless waterfowl (all they have to do is hang around with an open beak!)

Here in Meze we have a two bin system.  The brown bin is for garbage, which is collected twice a week.  The blue bin is for recyclables, which are collected once a week.  Recyclables include paper, cans and certain plastics, but not glass.

Glass must be carried to large plastic containers that are found at strategic locations around town.  Periodically, they fill up, at which time they are supposed to be replaced with an empty.  Regrettably, what often happens is they fill up, and are not replaced, and frustrated recyclers leave their glass piled up beside the containers.  Often it is broken.

Organics are not processed by the municipality.  The last time we were in France, I started a compost in the backyard of our house.  Our landlady thought we were doing something devious.  She clearly disapproved of both the compost area and the black soil that it generated.  Since then, municipalities have distributed compost bins and encourage residents to use them; however, as best as I can tell, few do.  We have now set one up in our backyard, and it works very well in the warm temperature here.

Yes, they have garbage here.  They recycle paper, PET plastic, aluminun and other metal, and glass.  They also encourage backyard composting.

This is a windrow composting facility that is very similar to those we use in Toronto for yard waste.  The windrow material here also appears to be primarily yard waste.  I have not had any indication that they collect leaf and yard waste here in Meze, but they obviously collect it somewhere.  This facility is in Villeveyrac, 15 km from Meze.  In the background, you may notice a million seagulls.  That's because there is a landfill right behind the composting  site.  Most of the non-recyclables in this area are landfilled (as opposed to incinerated).

There is a strong wind that blows from the Cevannes in the north down over the plains and on to the Mediterranean.  It makes wind power a very viable option.

In this case, a grape grower has a small turbine for use at his farmhouse.

Wind power is harvested on a much larger scale in this region.  In this case, an array of a dozen huge turbines are lined up on a ridge behind the village of Villeveyrac.  We have seen huge flat bed trucks lumbering slowly through Meze on their way to the foothills of the Cevannes, bearing silo-sized components of these wind towers.  Evidently, construction is proceeding apace, which is commendable, as France is otherwise heavily reliant on nuclear power.

Timed lights are commonly used in France, particularly in common areas.

I, having three forgetful boys, would love to have more of them, in every common space in our house.  As it is, we have a timer (which can be adjusted) on the switch that controls the lighting for the halls and staircases in our apartment.

This model is a little bulky.  Less cumbersome models are available.

Meze, where we are living, is in the south of France.  It is therefore quite feasible to utilize solar heat.

The roof of our "vigneron", seen here, has, in addition to a number of skylights, a large solar panel for heating water.  It has supplied all the hot water for our requirements to date, including showers, laundry, dishwasher, etc for a family of five.

The panel is connected to a storage tank located in the third (or as the french would say, second) storey of our apartment.

Of course, the system only works reliably as long as there is enough sun (even a hazy day will do it!)  Once the "damp season" sets in, and there are a number of heavily overcast days in a row, alternative arrangements are required.

Enter the demand hot water heater.  Rare in North America, these are as common as, well, houses in Europe.  They operate on gas, and provide hot water for washing etc, as well as for hot water central heating, as and when required.  But of course they provide the hot water only when it is required.

To date, we have not had to use any gas, and likely will not have to until November or so.

It is a great system, particularly because of the solar component.  Although this is the perfect area for such systems, because of the amount of sunlight, solar heating is, regrettably, not that common in France.

The shopping centres are vast, here in the land of the Carrefour chain.  But you have to bring your own shopping bags, or pay for reusable ones at the checkout.  We thought of this in advance, and so brought a number of good old Ontario "RCO" bags that have been put to good use.

Shopping cart theft is minimized by requiring the insertion of a one Euro coin into a locking device before the cart is released.  The Euro is returned with the cart's return.  Many of the big stores provide tokens that can be used in place of a Euro.

This is the tramway in Montpellier, running alongside a busy roadway.  The tram surface is grassed, and separated from the traffic by a low concrete barrier.

Here is a tramway stop next to the Corum, the modern opera house constructed at the opposite end of the Place de la Comedie from the old opera house.  Again the tramway is grassed over.

The narrow vehicle is a garbage truck.  It is leaving the pedestrian-only zone by lowering the two steel bollards in the middle of the road.  It does so by sending a radio signal to the big concrete ball on the left, which houses the control mechanism.

The City of Montpellier is served by a network of comfortable low-floor trams.  The trams operate on a prepaid computer card system.  Cards are purchased at machines at each stop, and are read on the tram by scanners operated on the honour system.  The trams run on an exclusive rights of way in the outer regions of town.  Most of these rights of way are covered with grass.  In the City centre, the trams share space with people, in a pedestrian-only zone, as seen here in the central Place de la Comedie.  The trams operate at a slower speed in the pedestrian areas.  It is a mixture that seems to work well, although everyone has to be a bit careful.

When you get off the tram, you can rent a bicycle from one of many coin operated booths in the area.  There are three universities in Montpellier.  The tram-bike system is a practical solution for students that live in the suburbs, but need to move around once they are in town.  It works well for tourists too.  The bikes are heavy duty, and may be returned to any of the rental stations.

Vehiclular traffic is controlled through a system of retractable bollards that are operated by radio control.  Normally, they are up, and vehicles are prevented from entering the pedestrian zone.  Emergency vehicles, or pre-authorized delivery vehicles are able to lower the bollards in order to get access.  There are very few vehicles in the pedestrian zone.  The unfortunate exception is motos (motorcycles and scooters) which seem to drive everywhere in France with impunity.  We did notice some effort by the Gendarmes to discourage this, but not too much.