From the very beginning of my stay in Paris, I have had to adjust to living with less space as my studio is rather small, but this 'small' inconvenience has affected other aspects of my life as a student in the city. For one, when going to the supermarket, I can only buy small amounts of food because my studio does not have much storage (see the picture of my mini-fridge!). In addition, I can only buy what I can carry since I'm usually walking or using public transportation. This is quite different from my life back home in the U.S., as I am generally only limited to how much I can fit in a shopping cart, which I can then put it in my car to take back home.
This had some other surprising consequences as the pandemic spread and the city was put on lockdown. For example, there was never a time when supermarkets ran out of food or supplies. Since there was no panic buying, we had toilet paper, food and hand sanitizer during the entire pandemic which I would attribute it to the culture of only buying what you need due to not having space or the ability to easily transport large quantities of goods. My perspective on life soon changed and I came to appreciate that this was not “living with less,” but living with what you need.
There are other ways that people in Paris show awareness about the effects of wastefulness.
