The City of Light is losing its lustre with piles of rubbish appearing across Paris thanks to strikes from sanitation workers that has lasted more than a week. It is the most visible sign of widespread anger over a bill to raise the French retirement age by two years to 64.
The smell of rotting food has begun escaping from some rubbish bags and overflowing bins. Neither the Left Bank palace housing the Senate nor, across town, a street steps from the Elysee Palace, where waste from the presidential residence is apparently being stocked, was spared by the strike.
