La vie en vert
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Paris is the most visited city in the world. Tourists flock there for the French joie de vivre, the food and wine, the monuments and museums. But it wouldn't top most people's lists of eco-destinations, a state of affairs that one hotelier has set his sights on changing.
The Solar Hotel in Paris's 14th arrondissement is billed as the city's first "low-cost, environmentally friendly, activist" hotel.
Hotelier Franck Laval has been an environmental campaigner for over 30 years. Now he is trying to put his motto "ecology is for everyone" into practice.
While the relaunched and rebranded former Hotel des Voyageurs is not the only hotel with eco-credentials in town, it is so far the only one in the budget price range.
Mr Laval weighs up the environmental impact of the tiniest things, from installing low-flow aerated taps to cut water usage to refusing to serve orange juice because of the large carbon footprint it generates.
But beneath this carefully considered exterior, there is still something of the radical about the hotelier. He has already installed the solar panels on the front of the building, without waiting for city council's famously slow bureaucracy to grind into motion and grant him permission.
After all, he says: "We have no more time". In his eyes, the environment is just too important to be put on hold.
