‘I hope Emily fixes the trash’: Brutal reality of visiting Paris right now

In what may be the most brutal “Instagram vs. reality” video ever, one Parisian local has taken to the ‘gram to show the impact of the city’s latest strikes.

Paris may be the city of love, but the locals aren’t feeling it at the moment. In fact, many of them are fuming. Why? Their footpaths are full of trash — a stinky reminder of the strikes, which have occurred in response to French President Macron putting the retirement age for garbage collectors up from 57 to 59 (and the general pension age up from 62 to 64).

In response to these fearsome piles of garbage, which seem to be getting bigger (and more rat-infested) by the day, one Paris-based Instagram account “Parisian Snobiety” has created a video to show what it’s like to live in Paris right now. Spoiler: it’s a long way away from the Mayfair filters and boujee soirees you see in series like “Emily in Paris.”

Simply captioned: “Paris right now,” the skit depicts two women trying to do a fashion shoot next to giant piles of rubbish, and a third muttering obscenities as she walks home with her shopping, dodging trash bags and huge piles of uncollected waste in the process. 

“Careful, dog sh—t,” she says, before moving on to more timely complaints like: “I’m fed up,” “I’m sick of this” and “I’m fed up with this f*cking city.” The video was made in collaboration with comedian Julie Collas, who is famous for her hilarious Instagram vs reality videos of Paris. 

The top comment, which touches on the problems of “travel aesthetics” ruining travel for everyone (an issue currently trending in itself, with the theory being that seeing beautiful pictures of a place before you go somewhere sets your expectations too high), reads: “I hope Emily fixes the trash issue in season 4.” At the time of writing, this quip has 160 likes. 

Below that, further funnies can be seen. One wrote: “Bahahahahaha my experience of living there exactly!” Another said: “Well done, Macron and Hidalgo (mayor of Paris). You’ve turned one of the world’s most beautiful cities into a dump.”

For some people though, this wasn’t a matter to make light of. One serious soul said: “For the tourists that are complaining about Paris right now, just know that if it’s ‘ugly’ these days it’s because we are trying to make things change for the good.”

The same Instagram user added: “So yes, it’s not the best moment to visit Paris but we f—king don’t care. This is not Disneyland, this is a city with people living in it.”

Another aggrieved social media user threw another bag on the comment pile, writing: “Turns out when the invisible workers, stop to do their work, it become VERY visible, VERY quickly.”

“Typically all the workers who had to do their job during Covid, have now the government trying to impose them a later retirement age. Go try run behind a truck to pick up trash at 60+ in the street of Paris! Full support to the protest.”

It seems like Emily In Paris has her work cut out for her this year.