SOMEWHAT to the dismay of global warming enthusiasts, winter began early this year in Paris. As these lines are being written the sun has not shown its face for many days, the sky being heavily overcast with little difference between days and nights. Constant rain and freezing temperatures do not make matters any easier.
But then, there is a brighter side to everything.
This evening, even though the shadowy figure of the Eiffel Tower through heavy rain across the living room window is a pathetic caricature of itself, there is enough warmth inside, thanks to the lively and heavily animated conversation among friends of Count Andre de la Roche.
And of course there also are those roaring logs, flaming and crackling joyfully in the spacious, sculpted marble fireplace of the Count’s living room.
His golden retriever Schweppes has not moved from his spot for almost an hour now. Sitting alert, he keeps his eyes focused on the flames.
“He seems to be really enjoying the warmth of the fireplace,” comments our friend, the Loire Valley journalist Jean Lauvergeat.
“Oh, he always enjoys that,” says Jenny, the Count’s wife, “but today he appears a bit worried. Maybe he knows the centuries-old pleasure of the Parisians relishing the log fire has only a few more days left.”
“Yes I have read about it,” joins in Edith, Jean’s wife. “I believe the Prefecture of Police has banned all kinds of wood fire in Paris as of Jan 1, 2015.”
“Not only in Paris but in all the 435 communes that surround the capital,” says the Count, helping himself to a cigar and sitting down in his leather sofa next to the fireplace.
“Officials justify the edict as an anti-pollution drive. The ban includes not only traditional fireplaces like ours that evacuate smoke into the air through chimneys but even modern heating apparatuses which also burn wood but transfer all the soot into replaceable containers.
“The Mayor argues that smoke from the fireplaces contributes as much as 23 per cent fine carbon particles to the atmosphere that is exactly the same amount as diesel and petrol driven automobiles combined.
“This figure is severely contested by experts who say only less than five per cent of fireplace emissions are responsible for air pollution while they go well above 40 per cent in case of cars, trucks and buses.
“But the most interesting turn to the controversy came last Tuesday when the Ecology Minister Segolene Royal qualified this decision as “a bit ridiculous”. Saying there is no such thing as “punitive ecology” she reassures the Parisians that she will do all she can to dump the law which is “only going haywire”, to use her own words.
“Speaking of the statistics advanced by the Prefecture, the minister further said she was totally surprised by them and considered it necessary to remind the police authorities as well as the Mayor of Paris that France continues to be a society of freedoms and not one of interdictions.
“The price statistics as well render the official stand a bit doubtful. Each kilowatt of electric heating, as recommended by the Prefecture, costs about 12 euro-centimes while it is seven centimes for natural gas and no more than five centimes for wood.”
As the Count pauses to take a puff from his cigar, Lauvergeat concludes the argument: “While the Battle of the Fireplaces seems far from being over, I personally believe heating by log fire should be encouraged. First of all, unlike oil and gas that are imported, we have all the wood we want for our needs, and comparatively at very low prices. Secondly, one hardly requires a proof that wood fire does not pollute the atmosphere the same way as oil and gas do. Thirdly, unlike automobiles that keep running throughout the year day and night, fireplaces are rarely lit once the few hard months of winter are over.”
Schweppes moves his eyes away from the flames for the first time this evening and gives out a single sharp bark staring at Jean.
“I think he agrees with you,” says Jenny laughing.
—The writer is a journalist based in Paris.
Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2014
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