A not so smelly reputation...

*Sur la photo: Mon challenge quotidien: prendre une douche en France.
My daily challenge, showering in France

My daily challenge in France is taking a shower. It is rare to find a fixed shower-head and a curtain or box to hide behind. Sitting in an open tub with a shower hose is not something my mommy taught me to do. Keeping water within the four corners of that tub is not easy without the proper training; it’s especially difficult when the water pressure has to be strong to keep the water hot (it splashes off your body and ends up everywhere).

You are expected to rinse yourself off, then, turn the water off, soap down and then rinse again. I’m going to be honest, it really takes away from the pleasure of feeling that hot water tickle down your head and soak your body in that constant stream, but it does make us think about how much more efficient the French are than we “westerners”. If you don’t care about the environment, think of how much lower your water bills would be!

It’s amazing how, for years, I've heard people talk about saving water with shorter showers, yet “the west” has not really progressed at actually putting this into practice. Well, little did I know that on the other side of the Atlantic there was a whole democratic and capitalist society that has been living efficiently for years with their five minute showers. Shower-time is not supposed to be a pleasure, but a necessity.

Mind you, I can only speak for Grenoble because I have not lived in any other part of France. Yet, I know when people speak of their water-saving skills, they speak for all of France. The best part is that although the majority already takes showers that are no more than five minutes long, they still campaign to get their citizens to save more. Now that puts a lot into perspective.

This may not be huge news to some of you, but considering it came as a shock to me (a person I like to believe pays attention to environmentalist innovations), I imagine it means there are billions of people who don’t have a clue how much water they are wasting unnecessarily. I can probably count about five girls I know who often shower for almost a half hour a day…

Photos and story by Marion Geiger