Big City, Narrow Streets

Ever wonder how a huge city keeps its streets clean?  Must have huge equipment, right?  The problem is, in a city as old as Paris, many of the streets are very narrow - the width of two horses passing.  So, to the amusement of tourists like me, the cleaning machines are surprisingly small.  In one case, when a normal-sized garbage truck tried to take a corner on one of these narrow streets, it took a crew of four men to remove bollards, barriers, and small cars while someone outside the truck navigated to avoid running over pedestrians and the driver maneuvered back and forth in a tight space until the feat was accomplished.

At least twice a day, water runs from pipes down the gutters of the streets to wash all the debris to a drain.  To keep it all flowing, city workers in green overalls sweep it downstream with green plastic brooms.  There are also mini-street cleaners that spray the sidewalk with a long extension while also sweeping the streets with rotating brushes. In the morning the sidewalks are washed clean except for the cigarette butts up against the buildings that the sprayer couldn't reach.