Débrouille and the car free day in Paris

The recycled crafts collective Débrouille and Alternatiba on the Car free day in Paris

Although it was a little while ago now, I want to write about the car free day in Paris, and an interesting recycled crafts collective, Débrouille, that I discovered that day.

On the 27th of September, Paris went car free for the day to try and encourage more sustainable forms of transport and to raise awareness for the high levels of pollution in the city, which for a brief few hours in March were worse than in any other city in the world!

We really enjoyed walking the streets without cars…we even walked up a car free Champs Elysées, although it was full to bursting with other pedestrians, pushchairs, cyclists and scooters. Thankfully it was a really lovely day, so it was good fun to just wander about and soak up the car free not-so-peacefulness.

While walking around the pedestrianised streets, we came across the Alternatiba fair, at place de la République, a ‘village’ proposing sustainable and environmentally sound alternatives to all corners of your life: energy, transport, cosmetics, computer software, cooking, recycling… with all sorts of animations, events and workshops on a whole load of different subjects.

Amongst the stalls, I discovered Débrouille, a collective of craftsmen and women from around the globe who create works of art, furniture, jewellery, bags and other useful or beautiful items from all kinds of reclaimed and recycled materials.

Here are a few photos of some of these recycled masterpieces. Below is a pot made from bottle caps, purses made from recycled paper (right) and more pouches and jewellery made from pull tabs from aluminium cans (left).

There were many objects created using cut up aluminium cans, like the butterfly broach in the photo below, but also jewellery, small models, furniture and decorations. Also in the photo below are a few pieces made from recycled bottles and glass. I particularly like the scoop made from an old bottle cut diagonally.

The stand had so many ideas which I was instantly longing to recreate – and they were even doing crochet with plastic bags. My kind of recycling!

The Débrouille website includes a shop, as well as workshops and loads of information about the different artists, but they also have a real life shop at 95 rue de Ménilmontant. I will definitely be going there soon to explore more of their works!