How Ecology Changed Daily Life in France 🌱 From Habits to Controversies | French Listening B1–B2 🎧

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(FR) Aujourd’hui, on vous parle de tous ces petits gestes écologiques que les Français font maintenant, presque sans y penser. Trier ses déchets, utiliser une gourde, aller au marché, fabriquer ses produits ménagers…
On vous explique comment l’écologie est entrée petit à petit dans la vie des Français, quels changements concrets on peut observer, et aussi… pourquoi certains Français en ont un peu marre de toutes ces règles écologiques. Enfin, on parle des limites, des débats, et de la fameuse expression : « l’écologie des riches ».
💬 On fait aussi un petit quizz et on te recommande à la fin quelques villes françaises “vertes” à visiter.

(EN) Today, we’re talking about all those little eco-friendly habits that many French people now do almost without thinking. Sorting waste, using a reusable water bottle, shopping at the local market, making homemade cleaning products…
We explain how ecology has gradually become part of daily life in France, what concrete changes you can observe, and also… why some French people are getting a bit tired of all these environmental rules. Finally, we talk about the limits, the debates, and the famous expression: “l’écologie des riches” (“ecology for the rich”).
💬 We also do a short quiz and recommend a few “green” French cities to visit at the end of the episode.
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Violaine: Hello everyone and welcome to this new episode. Before we start, obviously, I have to say hello to Nathan. Hello Nathan. Nathan: Hello, Violaine. Hello everyone. Violaine: How are you today? Nathan: Listen, I’m not doing too bad. I’m doing pretty well. Even though I injured myself two days ago, playing sports, playing padel, that racket sport. So, I wanted to smash and while smashing, uh, I do n’t know what happened. I pushed too hard. And so I have a little contracture, I think that’s it, in my shoulder. There you go. Violaine: Yeah, I think that’s it and to treat you, (in) any case, treat… Or rather soothe you, you put on a little tiger balm. We say that in French. It’s a traditional balm that warms the area a little. Nathan: It warms. I’ll put that on. I don’t know if it’s a placebo effect or not, but in fact, I think the best solution is just to rest and do nothing and stop exercising for what? About ten days. There you go. Rest. And you? Violaine: Okay, well, listen to me, everything’s fine. I didn’t get injured exercising. So I’m fine. And uh, the most important thing is that you can do this podcast with me today. Today, we’re going to talk to you about a subject that was born, once again, from an observation, from all the little observations we make every day in France. We’re going to talk to you about ecology and especially, Nathan, about… Nathan: Well, especially about how ecology, in fact, has changed our daily lives in France because we’re both over 30, Violaine. Violaine: No need to remind you of that in every episode. Nathan: No, people know it now, are starting to know it. But, but, it’s true that we’ve noticed, we’ve noticed changes for about thirty years, and it starts from a personal analysis, but it’s also shared by lots of people, and we’ll see it, especially with figures, right? It’s something serious. But there you go, it’s true that ecology, for more than 20 years, little by little, has been taking up more and more space, in our daily lives. Violaine: And so today we’re going to talk… To start with, anyway, about the small everyday gestures that have changed, (in) short, that have, that now punctuate our daily lives. I think the most important thing, and the one we’re going to start with, is waste sorting. Nathan: Yeah, waste sorting. That’s true. When we talk about waste, we’re talking about, uh, trash cans. We have different kinds of trash cans in France. Violaine: Well, first of all, we can talk about our personal situation in Nîmes, about how waste recycling works … Because it’s a bit unusual, I think. At least, I’d never seen it in France. So, basically, we have to sort our waste. So on one side, organic food waste! And on the other side, in transparent blue garbage bags, we have to put the packaging, so plastic and cardboard. But the slightly unusual thing is that it’s… This blue garbage bag that contains the packaging, we can only take it out twice a week. It’s on Tuesdays and Fridays and we have to put it at the foot of our building. Nathan: That’s right. Right in front of the door. That means that, in fact, when we use plastic packaging and we want to throw it away directly, we can’t really do it. We have to store it at home, keep it. So we try to put it in the kitchen in a cupboard, basically. In a trash can, before being able to take it all out after two or three days, like you said. Violaine: But every day, in any case, there comes a time when our street is full of trash cans that have been taken out. So, it’s quite unusual, it’s not the same everywhere. It’s not the same throughout France, but in Nîmes, it’s like that. Well, the fact that the blue bags are transparent, it encourages you to sort your waste properly. But honestly, when I go out, for example on Tuesday evenings, and I see the contents of the transparent bags… Well, Sorting isn’t always done perfectly. Nathan: No, it’s not always done perfectly, but I still see an evolution. It’s been 20 years, it’s true that 20 years ago, when I was younger, sorting didn’t exist or it was the beginning, a bit, of this selective sorting, as they say, and now it’s evolved. I know, for example, that at my mother’s house, the city, uh, gave her a big bin, let’s say, to be able to put her trash and her sorting in it, her waste like her plastic and her cardboard. So, it’s still going a bit in the right direction, but on the other hand, there’s something else when we talk about waste sorting in France, it’s the existence of Violaine compost, huh. Compost is quite recent, it’s becoming a bit of a trend and it also allows us to reduce waste in, let’s say, classic trash cans, huh. It’s true that if we use compost, we can reduce, I think, the amount of waste in conventional trash cans by 30 or 40%. So that’s not bad. Violaine: Yeah, but is composting possible in an apartment, for example? Nathan: I think it exists, yes. There are small bins that allow you to do it. Obviously, it’s still a minority. It’s a part of the population that does it, especially in cities, but, but it’s not bad. Just to remind you what you can put in compost… Uh, for example, eggs, well, not eggs, but eggshells. Violaine: Yeah, vegetable peelings. Nathan: Very well, the peelings. You can also put coffee grounds. Uh, so the coffee that we have, that we’ve used. Generally, leftovers, a little, from meals, peelings, etc. So that’s, that’s practical, too. I know, for example, that in my family, my mother does it, she goes to the end of her garden to be able to put all these leftovers there in her compost. This then allows you to use it, for example, as fertilizer, in fact, that you put on the earth, eh. For plants, it’s very beneficial for planting, the plants. Violaine: Yeah. So it’s a bit of a virtuous circle. So it’s true that composting isn’t a generality in France, but still it’s developing, let’s say. And it’s a little helped by the municipalities to encourage people to do that. And if composting isn’t yet very widespread, there is still something, another everyday gesture that is very widespread… It’s the end of plastic bags. I think it’s been banned in supermarkets since 2016, 2017. Is that it? Nathan: Yeah, well, if you go next door to the supermarket, you can’t, in fact, get classic plastic bags, let’s say, that you throw away! It’s very specific. It’s very regulated, but you can still buy plastic bags but they’ll be stronger, in fact, that are considered reusable. You can always find those. Violaine: Yeah. And they’re biodegradable, too. Well, if you go to a small grocery store at night, honestly, they’ll give you a plastic bag and they won’t charge you for it. So it’s really for supermarkets, markets, etc. And it’s true that, well, when we go shopping, we have to have shopping bags, you know! Shopping bags. I think that’s what they’re called. Nathan: What material is it? Violaine: I don’t know! It’s not plastic, it’s not… Nathan: Fabric? Violaine: Yeah, so we have some made of fabric, but there are others that are made of another material. And in fact, when we pick up our groceries, because we pick up our groceries, uh, we have them delivered to a relay point. Anyway, I’ll spare you the details, but basically, we have to transfer our groceries from, from cardboard bags to reusable bags. Because if we leave with the cardboard bags, I think we pay, we pay a sort of deposit on top. Nathan: It’s something like 15 cents or 30 cents, the bag. But so we see everyone, in fact, doing that, coming with their own bags, so a little thick, reusable and leaving with their own groceries. We, It’s true, like many French people, even when we buy fruits and vegetables, for example, at the supermarket, we never take plastic bags or pouches, (in) any case what we sometimes have available… Take the bananas, I don’t know, or the tomatoes and weigh them directly and put the little receipt on them, uh without taking a bag, you know! That was what surprised us a little, sometimes in Spain, the cashiers or the sellers who said to us “but you don’t take a bag?” We said “no, no, no need”. There’s no point in wasting, using plastic for nothing, you know! Violaine: Yeah, it’s true that we had a little culture shock about that in Spain. And sometimes we were forced to put the fruits and vegetables in plastic bags. Nathan: But you know that in France, two years ago, I was a little judged by a shopkeeper. It was in downtown Toulouse when I wanted to buy… It was a poster, a Christmas present just before Christmas and I had entered a shopkeeper, an independent who sold posters and when it came to paying, when it came to leaving, in fact, I made a bit of a mistake, so to speak, of asking him, I told him clearly, like that, this sentence “do you have a bag? Can you sell me a bag, or give me a bag?” Because it was raining, on top of that, outside. So I didn’t want to leave my poster like that in the open air and he judged me, he even made a comment: “but you have to come with your own bag, you know! I don’t have one or I can’t give you one.” I think he was a fairly committed shopkeeper in downtown Toulouse. But it’s true that I was a bit ashamed because everyone next to me had their own bag, you know! Violaine: And it’s true that I often walk around with tote bags, so canvas bags, but sometimes I don’t have any. And when I go shopping and I find myself carrying all my groceries like that in my hand, frankly, I always drop something in the street. Sometimes, I’ve already broken eggs, you know? But hey, it’s true that it’s still something that has changed our daily lives in recent years. Nathan: That’s true. And now, I’m thinking about it, right now. When we’re in France, every time we pay, for example, in a café, in a bar, in a restaurant, even at the supermarket, so. At any store, we’ll be asked at the end, when we pay, especially by card, eh, by bank card: “do you want the receipt, do you want the receipt?” Every time, they ask us to do it to avoid, I think, wasting and spending money or at least wasting paper for nothing. Violaine: Or that people throw their receipts in the street, you know, too. Um , do you have another little daily gesture? I have one if you want. Nathan: Well, go ahead, I’m listening. We’ll see if it’s the same. I wrote one down and I think it’s the same. Violaine: Well, honestly, what has changed a lot in our daily lives is the massive arrival of water bottles. Nathan: That’s it. Violaine: Do you agree? Nathan: That’s it. In fact, we even have one right here, right next to us. The water bottles that, for example, I take with me when I play paddle tennis, you see. I don’t take plastic bottles. I bring my own water with me, with the water bottle! Violaine: And basically, I think that frankly, the last time I bought a pack of water, so plastic water bottles … Honestly, I think I don’t remember it anymore because it’s so far out of my daily life and it’s also helped by the fact that we drink tap water. So we don’t buy mineral water, for example, we really drink tap water. I think that 85% of French people drink tap water. It’s something that’s quite common in France, but I think that it’s only 50% of French people who drink ONLY tap water and not a little tap water and a little mineral water. But in fact, we, well, we fill our water bottles all the time because we only drink tap water. So, in fact, we never buy plastic bottles. That’s changed a lot. Nathan: Yes, because tap water is drinkable in France. But the water bottle, yeah, it’s also a fashion trend. We see them everywhere. I also think it’s very practical. So, it’s more eco-friendly of course, it’s also more economical, because especially in the summer, when it’s very hot and we visit cities and we can easily fill our water bottle with water, which we find in a fountain or I don’t know, even from the tap… Uh, well, it’s cheaper than going every time to buy maybe a plastic water bottle like we did, come on, maybe 5 or 10 years ago in France. Violaine: But you know I saw a really interesting statistic. In France, it’s the 25-34 year olds who own the most water bottles. So we’re really in the target group. And that reminds me of an anecdote. I don’t know if you remember, but a few weeks ago, we attended a tennis match in the Nîmes Arena, and in fact, before entering the Arena, there were checks. So they searched us and decided whether we could enter or not. And in fact, there was a table with all the water bottles that couldn’t go in because they considered it a projectile that could be thrown at the players. There was a huge table with lots of water bottles. Nathan: At least fifty water bottles that were, that were present on this table. Violaine: And they were waiting for their owners to return after the match. Nathan: And I can share the same anecdote with you in my padel sports club where, a few days ago, the president, I think of the club, shared with us on the club’s private WhatsApp conversation, a photo with lots of water bottles that had also been forgotten by the players. Now it’s, let’s say that it’s becoming widespread and that it’s entering our, our daily lives. You alone gave me a water bottle, I think, or two that I’ve lost. Violaine: Yeah yeah, we’ve lost the water bottles you’ve lost, but I’m also given some because I lose or forget quite a few. Nathan: And water bottles are practical. Just to remind you that when it’s hot, it’s important to buy a water bottle that’s insulated, right? It keeps, it keeps the cold, if you want it cold, or it keeps the hot, if you put coffee in it, for example. I think it keeps, it lasts maybe 12 hours or 24 hours. But that’s, well, it’s much better than a simple plastic water bottle. So there you go. Violaine: Well, and then we’re not going to mention them too much. But in our daily lives, in the apartment, we’re also careful. Like, we turn off the light as soon as we leave a room, we save water when we shower. Well, no need to mention that. Nathan: Honestly, are you really doing it for the, for the planet, you? Do you turn off the light thinking “I ‘m going to save the planet thanks to my little gesture”? Violaine: Am I doing it for the planet or for the bills? Nathan: That’s it! Violaine: Is that your question? Both. Nathan: Honestly, I do it more for the bills, especially because electricity, the price of electricity is quite high and expensive in France, especially in winter. So I don’t have this reflex because I know that it’s obviously very anecdotal, even if obviously if everyone does it, uh it will have a positive effect. But no, I have to tell you my opinion, be honest with you. It’s not really for the planet that I do it, but that, you know, turning off the light when leaving, for example, when leaving a room, I’ve heard it since I was little. My grandmother always said “oh, electricity is expensive”. It was always this relationship to price rather. So she would say to me “oh turn off the light, turn off the light when you leave, when you leave a room.” So there you go, it’s a reflex, let’s say, a habit, but for me, it’s nothing new! For a few years. Violaine: Yeah. And then we’re not the type to make our own household products, like some people do, etc. So we’re not that far gone, so it’s maybe more for the bills. You’re right. Nathan: On the other hand, my mother has been making her own laundry detergent for a while. So, she has quite eco-friendly convictions, uh, but there, on the other hand, I think that’s still a minority. Violaine: Yeah. Well, because we’re still going to tend to favor eco-responsible actions that are simple to put in place, you see. Which are practical, otherwise it takes too much time. Nathan: So there are all these actions, in fact, Violaine, well it’s true that they seem trivial, but it still reflects a real change of mentalities. And there is, it’s true… One, I think, a real revolution, in fact, in the, in consumption. Violaine: So. Concerning consumption, there is something that we can mention because we see it every week… It’s to what extent now people consume what we call short circuits, consume local products. Nathan: Yeah. And there you are referring, I think, to the market that we go to every Friday, every Friday morning, the Nîmes producers’ market. Violaine: Exactly and frankly, to help you imagine… So already, there are a lot of people, every Friday who go to the market. And also; it must be said that the stands where there are the most people are the stands where the products come from the region or neighboring regions. That, frankly, is something that we really notice and the stands where the fruits or vegetables come, for example from Spain or Morocco… Well frankly, it There are a few fewer people. Nathan: Yeah, we want to buy local. We really want to buy what’s produced right next to us; in fact. If the product comes from the other end of France, you’ll see that the stand will be less popular than the one that comes from the region, or rather from the corner. And even if it comes from the department, it’s even better. So we can ask ourselves why. Is it to support just the producer who comes from the area. It’s a form of patriotism, a little local, regional. Is it also perhaps to support this side, a little more ecological, that is to say that it’s a short circuit. There’s less transport to do, less distance, made by the truck, for example, which will bring you the fruits and vegetables. I don’t know what you think about that. Violaine: And I think there’s also an argument of trust, in the sense that we know what the producer is going to put in his fruits and vegetables, You see. How he’s going to treat it, is he going to use pesticides or not, there’s a way to ask him because he’s here in front of us. So I think it’s a mix of all the arguments you’re saying. Nathan: But here, we’re also talking about organic because organic, when you see those stands at the market… Behind them, there’s often written like that, this message “organic farming”. And those stands are very busy, right? You know, for example, our producer, our vegetable seller where we buy salad. What did we also buy there recently? Asparagus… Violaine: Asparagus, spring onions. There you go. Nathan: He’s organic, right. So there are always lots of people. We have to queue a bit. So I think that in France we like to support local produce for the producer. To support him economically, because we know it’s a bit complicated for him, uh financially. We also come to his place. for… Well for health, because it’s been proven that when you eat without pesticides or with fewer pesticides, it’s better for your health. But I also think there’s this argument, uh, for the planet, you know! Violaine: And you know that has a name. The fact of eating very local, This is what we call locavorism. Nathan: Wow, it’s not very well-known, eh! Violaine: Yeah, the term isn’t very popular yet. But I also think that the trend is still a little nuanced because here, we’re talking about the farmers’ market that we frequent and where there are people, but can we generalize on a global scale or at least on the scale of France? Well, first of all, it has to be said: not everyone has the opportunity to come to the market on Friday morning, you see. There are people who work. There are people who live further away. So there you go, there are people who might go to the supermarket because it’s easier, it takes less time. And there you go, that’s why I just wanted to add a little nuance, uh, on this trend. Nathan: Of course. But hey… First of all, there are quite a few markets on Saturday and Sunday too, eh. In France, it’s still something that exists and is very popular, where there are a lot of people. There are figures, however, one thing that is certain is that organic, you see the organic sector, it has exploded in France in recent years. I actually saw a statistic. It has even doubled in France over the last 10 years. And France is one of the, of the biggest producers, you see, of organic in Europe. So, it’s not widespread, let’s say, but there is a real evolution in this direction, there, since the beginning, let’s say, of the 21st century or at least for the last 15, 20 years. Violaine: Yeah, we’re going in the right direction. Nathan: That’s it. We can perhaps advance with Violaine an observation that I made recently, it was a few days ago last weekend when we left to spend a few, a few days in a neighboring city only 30 minutes away, a city called Montpellier. There is one thing that jumped out at me a little and surprised me. Well, it concerns the greening of cities. It’s not easy to say, but basically, quite simply when we went to Montpellier last weekend, I saw green everywhere. Violaine: Yeah. Green everywhere, especially on the outskirts of the city, that is to say around the city. When you arrive by car, everything is green, they don’t mow anymore. So they let the weeds grow and in fact, Montpellier is really surrounded by nature. And it’s true that it’s quite impressive when you arrive in the city. Nathan: But even inside, eh, in a square in Old Montpellier, in the old town, I remember and I took a photo of this square, that there was a sort of vegetable garden or a, yeah, a shared garden right in the middle with lots of trees with, like you said, we don’t mow it anymore, so these tall grasses. And it’s always a bit impressive. It’s almost like being in the jungle, eh, in the center of a French city, a big city. That’s nice. That’s really recent because, well, it’s the same thing in La Rochelle, eh. Now, for a few years now, the mayor has decided to no longer mow the green spaces. We let the grass grow. And it’s visible there in the spring. And that, 10 years ago, we preferred to mow, what, to have magnificent, perfect lawns, you know. Well, what’s the advantage too? It’s just that in the summer, it’s a little cooler, you know. It might lower the perceived temperature a little. Violaine: Well, yeah, because in fact, we’re trying to (finally, yeah,) put less concrete or at least to, to reduce the importance of concrete which really heats up cities, especially in the summer. And we’re even going to create eco-districts, so neighborhoods where there are a lot of green spaces. This is also the case in Montpellier with a neighborhood we visited called Port-Marianne. Nathan: Magnificent neighborhood. Violaine: Yeah. But in fact, we really have the impression that in a lot of cities, we want nature to reclaim its rights. And I think that goes hand in hand with the fact that many big cities are now managed, in France, by green mayors. Nathan: That’s true. When you take stock, you see… We have the mayor of Bordeaux who is a member of the Green Party, eh, ecologists. I think we have the mayor of Lyon too. Violaine: Obviously. Nathan: Whom you know better because you’re from this very beautiful city. Marseille too? Violaine: So no, I don’t think he’s an ecologist. He’s a socialist and he doesn’t seem to have any ecological considerations at the moment. Nathan: Okay, so I’m wrong about that. Grenoble, of course, a city we know, and I think it was the pioneering city, eh, in terms of ecology in France, because he’s been mayor for over 10 years. When we were students in Grenoble, Éric Piolle was already mayor of, of Grenoble, whereas for, for Bordeaux, for Lyon, it’s more recent, but there too, we see that there is a progression towards political ecology. Violaine: And I saw Éric Piolle riding his bike in Grenoble. Cliché, but yeah, he was really one of the first green mayors in France. And there’s also Poitiers. Nathan: Poitiers too. Well, it’s a smaller city, but Grenoble is much, much bigger. It’s true that it’s understandable when you see Grenoble, which had major pollution problems, particularly greenhouse gas emissions , with, we often say that Grenoble is a basin, surrounded by the Alps. So there are the mountains and then the city below. So we always saw this cloud of pollution. So we understand why they voted for and elected, uh, a green mayor. Violaine: And in the same vein, there are more and more cities that are going to create, you know, low-energy housing, and in truth, for me, that’s the future because we ‘re still increasingly forced to live in apartments, uh, in the city. And I think that will be one of the only ways to survive in cities where it will be very hot in the future. Nathan: Yeah. And here, we could also talk about these problems in apartments that are trying to be solved with insulation issues. We’re talking about these apartments in particular that are thermal sieves, so they consume, that require a lot of energy. So now, little by little, this type of apartment is becoming prohibited. Work has to be done. The owners have to solve all these little problems. Uh, so there you go. Violaine: But here, we’re still talking about changes that we consider positive… That we observe, etc., but we can’t deny it… There is still some resistance in society. And there are still points of tension around ecology in French society. Nathan: That’s true. Violaine: And frankly, one of the biggest tensions… We were talking about it just before doing the episode, is still around the car. So I said around the car when we were talking about it together, uh which is the familiar word for the car. Do you feel that? Nathan: I feel it… Yes, so a little less, maybe not us, because we have a relatively recent car, but here, I would like us to refer, perhaps to the sticker. Can you explain what it is? Because in fact, there is a real tension around that, the sticker. I think that’s what we call it. An eco sticker that we have to put on our car. Violaine: Yeah, it’s a sticker with a number between 1… Phew no, between 0 and 4, I think. And you basically have 0, if your car is very eco-friendly and 5, if it’s not at all and if it pollutes a lot. And in fact now to enter the biggest cities in France or in any case, to park, especially in these big cities, you need an eco sticker, so maybe between 0 and 2. I don’t know. And well, that poses a problem for people who have cars that are very polluting and who don’t have the means to buy more ecologically efficient cars. And so, obviously, well, there’s tension around that. Nathan: No, it’s true. There is this form of tension that exists, but there are others. And I’m thinking in particular, you know, of these, to these lanes that have recently been reserved for cars. This too is recent. But when we went to Lyon last time, when we entered the city by car, we saw that on the three lanes that were, uh, reserved for cars, let’s say. The one furthest to the left, I think it was the one furthest to the left, was reserved only for carpooling or cars carrying more than two people. And so if you were alone in your car, you had to stay on the right. All this is also to encourage carpooling and so that we take a little less cars, you know! Violaine: But that creates, for example, for people who travel alone, well they will be more likely to find themselves in traffic jams, in traffic jams, etc. But let’s mention- let’s still mention that Lyon has managed to reduce air pollution. Even so, there are people who are not very happy with the practicality in the city; There have been positive consequences on air quality. Nathan: That’s it. That’s exactly it. At least all these standards, you see, they have had a positive consequence. I think that in Paris too , uh, it’s all done some good. And in particular a standard in Paris that caused such a stir, that caused a lot of noise and that caused people, drivers, to get fed up, that’s for sure. It was, you know, when the ring road, the Paris ring road, as they say, went to 50 km/h. That was a few weeks ago. So there are all the Parisians who take to the road to get around the city center of Paris a little bit, each time, they were driving before… I don’t know at 70, 80 or 90 km/h… Now, they have the obligation to stay at 50. So it’s true that the difference is quite significant. Violaine: Yeah, well, first of all, it reduces pollution, but air pollution, but also noise pollution. I imagine that was one of the objectives. But there are criticisms of that, in fact, which will join a little, uh, all the criticisms, perhaps on ecology, that we will say that it’s a little the ecology of the rich, sometimes. Because well, imagine, you don’t live in the city center of Lyon, which is still the most expensive, eh, for housing. You have to take your car and you don’t have an eco-friendly car… Well, you find yourself not being able to drive in Lyon… Same for the ring road. Let’s imagine in Paris, so you live in the suburbs of Paris because it’s cheaper. And every morning, you take your car to go to work in Paris… Well, in fact, you have to get up earlier because now the speed limit is reduced to 50 km/h. So that, well, it changes people’s daily lives, and that’s clear and straightforward. Well, yeah, there are… Maybe those who are less financially secure are perhaps more impacted, at least in those aspects. And that’s also why there are criticisms. Nathan: Yes, actually, I think it’s always the same thing. It depends on where you stand. If you’re a driver, if you take your car every day, obviously you’re rather critical of these measures. If you’re a pedestrian, if you’re a cyclist and even a tourist! You walk around a city center like Paris or Lyon, it’s rather nice to see areas that become pedestrianized, areas reserved for you where you can walk peacefully without taking the risk, without the risk of being hit or knocked down by a car. To breathe better too. It’s true that sometimes, when you travel, we’ve visited certain cities in the world, certain capitals where when you got out of the car, you smelled this pollution. Not to mention, not to mention the long-term health risks. When you live in Paris for 50 years, when you work outside, on construction sites, for example, you have… It’s proven, eh, a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease or getting cancer. Violaine: Yeah. There’s also a lot of criticism because cities like Lyon or Paris, uh, want to actually extend their pedestrian zones where there are only pedestrians and more cars. And yes, obviously, it’s super pleasant and we, what’s more, we’re city dwellers. We live in a city center, but… Not everyone can afford to live in downtown Lyon, in downtown Paris. So we might have to find compromises or find solutions for housing, for buying back cars that pollute too much. I don’t know. But we’ll have to find solutions. Nathan: Maybe give aid too. We like that in France, but think about these people, like you say, who don’t have the means, so as not to create a little… Not ghettos, eh, that ‘s a strong word, but have neighborhoods reserved for the rich, like you say, where the poorest or the most modest, can’t, uh, go. Have we finished Violaine because time is running out? Uh, I’d like to ask you a little question. Little quiz! Violaine: Come on. Nathan: I saw the news on the internet earlier. Do you know the greenest European capital? According to quite a few studies, eh, over the last few years. So I know there are countries that are really benchmarks in this area. I’m thinking of Finland, I’m thinking of Luxembourg, I think, but I’m talking about a city, a capital that the media talk about, the French media talk about it quite a bit, like that, as a reference. Violaine: Is it a capital of a northern country? Nathan: No, it’s a little further east, let’s say, of France, Lyon in particular. It’s not that far. Violaine: Is it Vienna in Austria? Nathan: No, but we’re not far. We’re getting closer. Violaine: Ah, I know. Didn’t we see a report on it? It’s in Slovenia. Nathan: That’s it. Violaine: Yeah, Ljubljana. Nathan: Ljubljana, exactly. Apparently, it’s a benchmark, especially in terms of waste sorting. So, if some people are listening to us from Slovenia, you might be able to confirm or affirm that. But we’re curious to know. Maybe, Violaine, we can give some… How can I put this? Give some advice, make suggestions for green cities to visit in France. We talked about it a bit earlier. So, what would you say? Violaine: Since we went there, I obviously recommend Montpellier. Nathan: For the nature, really. Violaine: For the surrounding nature. For all the cycle paths they’ve installed in the city, which make it very easy to get out of the city to go to the seaside. So that’s really incredible. Lyon, I want to tell you if you’re arriving by train. There you go. You can visit Lyon on foot . You went there not long ago. Nathan: Yeah. But if we stick to the nature side, I think honestly, I would say other cities. Lyon is not bad. But if you really like to see greenery: Nantes. Nantes is quite eco-friendly. There’s the Loire and you know that we can do, we can walk for, I think, about twenty kilometers by bike or on foot along the Loire. That’s not bad. Grenoble too. Violaine: And then La Rochelle. Nathan: La Rochelle, it’s true, is a reference. La Rochelle was one of the first cities in the 70s or 80s to have adopted self-service bicycles. So, so it’s not bad. And then I saw a ranking and I must say, even if I don’t know the city well, it was the city of Angers, I think, which was voted the most eco-friendly city in France or the greenest in France. I think that’s great. It’s becoming fashionable, but I don’t know it at all. Violaine: I don’t know it either, and maybe it’s linked to its eco-friendly side, but Angers was elected, I think, as one of the most pleasant cities to live in France, uh, in 2025. Nathan: It’s certainly linked, eh. In my opinion, the criteria are close, are similar or similar. Violaine: Well, I think it’s time to leave you. Once again, we could have talked longer, but now I see Nathan making movements for his arm. So I feel that the pain is starting to be too strong. Nathan: I’m suffering, I’m going to do some little stretches. Violaine: Well, I’m going to free you. I’m going to free you too. Thank you all for listening to us until the end. Leave us a little comment on Spotify to talk about your daily life. How has it been impacted by ecology? And in the meantime, well, we’ll see you as usual in two weeks. Ciao, ciao!