When we were in Paris last week, and it had not been raining, I noticed that many of the storm drains were pumping water out onto the street and I'm just wondering why.

The streets in much of Paris are cleaned nearly daily and part of the process is flushing the gutters. I'm 99% sure that is what you saw happening.

Firstly, what a dull question.

Secondly, it's simply because the drains are at over their maximum capacity and the excess water rushes out.. it happens in London too my dear.

For cleaning, see http://www.paris-anglo.com/dedent/de...anslive/82.php
Regards, Walter

M Kingdom2 - Must you ALWAYS be a rude ass? And besides, you're wrong...Flyboy pointed out that they deliberately flush out the gutters at certain times of the day. Good question, Ronda.

Thanks, must have been exactly what I witnessed.

Yes, MK2, to you it is a dull question but different subjects interest different people and that is what makes this world so wonderful. However, you didn't read the entire question; I did say that it had NOT been raining... It happens in the good old US of A as well sugar.

Here's a shot of a Paris street cleaner in action:

http://shovland.home.mindspring.com/2002-3-12.html

A couple of weeks ago on Place de Republique, I saw a very inebriated fellow in an early morning standoff with one of the green machines that was reminiscent of the guy in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square during the June 1989 uprising in Beijing, China.

Just think what Paris would look like if those boys in the lime green suits decided to go on strike and were out for 10 days!!

It would not be possible to walk in many places without considerable risk.

I can imagine it now. People could say the were all pooped out and were unable to see Paris.

I wonder if Jean-Pierre Raffarin would call in the military to take over the job until the strike was settled?

After the lime-greens went back to work, they would need a week to catch up!!

When we were in Paris in 2001, the streetsweepers were still using the brooms made of twigs and branches.

In 2004, they had converted to plastic brooms.

mKingdom is wrong as usual, and flyboy is correct. There is an entire separate system for cleaning the Paris streets daily by washing them. Amazing.

The storm drains flow backwards in Paris? How could this be? It's not even in the Southern hemisphere.

I'm actually surprised m_kingdom2 didn't say something like, "Please get your mind out of the gutter" but I thought the question was interesting and, as usual, somebody had the right answer.

Sorry, but mk2 is only about half that witty.