Our good doctor combines his daily walk with picking up litter around his tony Parisian neighborhood and— reminiscent of one of his books, Litter: How Other People’s Rubbish Shapes Our Life—reports his findings in City Journal.

The work, or activity, is fascinating and not in itself unpleasant—provided that you have gloves. It gives an insight, if not into society exactly, at least into the way some people live. Every discarded piece of rubbish in the street or bushes was an act of disdain for, indifference or hostility toward, society in general, to the public space. The sidewalk near my flat bears a stencilled slogan: The street belongs to everyone. That gives everyone the right, of course, to litter it.