Death of a window cleaner

   Visiting the UK recently to see Kim and Alyson, while Kim was looking after her, I was struck by the visit of the window-cleaner with his ladder and bucket, a normal sight in Britain but completely unknown in France. When I was a youngster, the approved method of finding a little employment was to buy a ladder, a bucket and a shammy leather and set up a round of windows to clean and it is obvious this useful trade still thrives, though the price has grown since it cost five bob.
  However, the trade has never established itself in France for two very basic reasons. The first is that the country French would sooner be seen stark naked in the high street than spend good money on someone else doing what they could do for themselves free. The second reason is simple---shutters.
  Now as you can see from my header pic, all French houses have shutters fitted to their windows. A friend who visited England for the first time was flabbergasted to see that the English almost exclusively don`t have them. But how do you keep the burglars out, she asked.  How indeed.... But the fact remains that they are universal in France and as rare as hen`s teeth in the UK.
  How does this affect window cleaners, I hear you ask, after all you can open the shutters. Well, it`s like this. If you have shutters, the window MUST open inwards, otherwise you can`t lock the shutters. Therefor, all windows in France open inwards, while all in England open outwards. If your windows open outwards you can`t clean them from the inside, so any window above ground level will need a ladder. As most people are a little unsteady on ladders, the job has to be sub-contracted. In France, it`s easy-peasey, you wipe the inside, open the window and can then wipe the outside, even on first floor or higher. Think of the money you`re saving! That`s the reason that the trade of window cleaner is denied to budding French entrepreneurs!

  Bye for now going to look out of the window....