ReportageWhile the deputies examine, from Monday, the government’s measures to preserve the purchasing power of the French, the inhabitants of the Prelude tower recount with modesty how inflation has entered their daily lives.
The consequences of inflation in France can be read on the scale of a modest ream of paper. For several days, Robert Coriat has been worried about the reserves of his printer, which he uses frequently as president of the Amicale des tenants de la tour Prélude, a building located in the popular district of Flandre, in the 19e district of Paris. This retired professor saw in the program “C à Vous”, on France 5, that the price of paper was going to increase by 20% due to the rise in the cost of raw materials. He wonders if he shouldn’t build up a small stock in anticipation. And is also worried about the price of his newspaper. “When you’re from my generation, paper is important”blows the 74-year-old retiree.
At 123 meters high, the Prélude tower is the largest residential building in the capital. A symbol of the architectural prowess and excess of the 1970s – 38 floors, nearly a thousand tenants. For several months, the rise in prices caused by the cumulative consequences of the health crisis and the war in Ukraine has knocked on each of the 252 doors of the building. From the retired to the young employee, from the couple of civil servants to the recipients of social minima, from the small business manager to the single mother, the tenants deliver with modesty, with fatigue, sometimes with anger, the chronicle of a daily life under inflation.
In the privacy of homes, women often find themselves on the front line to do the shopping, follow up on bills, manage accounts. In a few weeks, Jeanne Ngemtchoua, a tenant of 10e floor, saw the price of a kilo of cordon-bleu soar at the butcher’s. It went from 21 to 23, then to 30 euros. Ditto for free-range chicken, which she likes to cook for her three children. The worst ? “Sixteen euros for oil in a four-litre fryer, do you realize? »takes offense at this 55-year-old medical secretary.
At 19e floor, Fatou Dembele keeps all her receipts, compares each price and notes the differences from one store to another. Aldi, Lidl, Casino, the market, the butcher, the grocer… At 57, this single mother goes around all the stores in the neighborhood to find the cheapest items. Even recently, the Franco-Ivorian bought a box of chicken thighs for almost 25 euros, when she usually paid 18.90 euros.
“It’s the overflow, this situation will make me even sicker”, she lets go, exhausted, from the living room of her apartment. Each month, she receives 1,700 euros, which includes the disabled adult allowance (AAH) that she has been receiving since her two strokes, a hundred euros in personalized housing assistance (APL) and her salary as a social worker of 890 euros.
You have 77.74% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.