Michel, the rose sweeper

Michel is a street sweeper who can be recognized by the rose that adorns his cart. “I wanted to bring to my cart a kind of antithesis, of beauty over ugliness, purity over dirt, so one day I went to the flower shop next door and the florist told me given an unsaleable flower. And since then, he has given me a free flower almost every day.” Michel.

Michel was first an office worker, an accountant more precisely. But his attraction to both public service and outdoor work pushed him to become a sweeper, his profession for 38 years.

“It was a surprise to everyone that an office worker applied for a job as an unskilled worker.”

Michel describes his daily work: “I do my work with a slowness that is good for the soul. Our mascot is the snail. […] I try to get to the bottom of things, to pick up the little cigarette butts around the tree, the one you can’t see, the little hidden beer bottle… I want to keep this perfection in cleaning with tools rudimentary.” this Michelwho often sings while working.

“I’m lucky to have the sky as my ceiling.”

The seven children of Michel all studied. Without following his example, they nevertheless helped their father on several occasions in the summer. “MThe children wanted to earn a better living. I always thought that our children should not be formatted in our image.” Michel.

“This job was a vocation for me. An activity suited to my temperament.”

The rose sweeper also likes to read and tries his hand at poetry. He even rewrote a poem by Joachim Du Bellay in his own way. He quotes the first verses: “Happy is he who, as a sweeper, makes useful journeys, from alleys to sidewalks, and pink for fleece, and who has no need to get on a plane, to grasp the world and its use as a whole.“

Thanks to Michel.

• Reportage : Valérie Borst
• Realization : June Loper

Ending music : “Let’s Jump The Broomstick”, Brenda Lee – Album : Brenda Lee (1960)

To go further

Michel’s book: A rose and a broomCentury Hunger, 2015.

“From street sweeper to Harvard graduate: the remarkable journey of a man who got up at 4 a.m.”, Santé+, March 14, 2024.