Toulouse: why does Place Saint-Pierre smell so bad?
After a faulty urinal, local residents and shopkeepers in Place Saint-Pierre complained of odor nuisance. The nauseating odor scares away tourists and passers-by.
On Saint Peter’s Square, it’s a party every night. On weekends, during the week and even on public holidays, Toulouse students take advantage of the warm welcome of the bars near the Garonne to go out. But after the swallowed glasses and the increase in incivility, the place is gradually transformed into a large urinal. The revelers, alcoholic or not, relieve themselves on the public highway without the slightest embarrassment. The urinal in the square is completely blocked, and prevents the evacuation of waste water. Trees, walls, street furniture, are then used by night owls for their needs.
Part of the square is completely flooded with urine that overflows onto the bike paths and the road. Bicycles, pedestrians and even cars cannot avoid it. As they roll, they spread the smell and splash. If the revelers do not worry about the consequences during their slowdowns, the businesses of Saint Pierre, them, note the damage. At the Mustache glacier, every morning it’s the same old story. The smells and the puddle of urine that occurs from the clogged urinal or from the walls near the terraces of the small sign. “It’s frankly disturbing and the smell is unbearable,” complains Denis Sandy, manager of the glacier.
A smell so unpleasant that it scares away tourists and passers-by
The trader no longer knows where to turn. The phenomenon is so disturbing that some tourists or passers-by avoid the area. “People complain about it and don’t want to eat on the terrace. They are often empty because of this problem”, also laments Raphael, the manager of the Pokéteria restaurant. His sign is a few meters from the faulty urinal. What displaces traders is above all the lack of visibility. “We have no information from the town hall”, admits the glacier from Mustache. Same observation for the head of Pokéteria: “I called AlloToulouse every day. It bothers us a lot.”
Contacted, the municipality wanted to clarify the problem. It was about a technical problem of the vespasienne which at the last overflow on the public road. The revelers then used this clogged urinal or would do their business nearby. “The issue has been reported. People leave all kinds of trash and in the end it gets clogged and overflows. It is obviously very unpleasant, ”warns the town hall of Toulouse. A plumber should come within a week to fix the urinal.