1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Russia's war in UkraineEurovision Song ContestIsrael-Hamas war

France: First School for Concierges

June 22, 2012

They're as much a part of Paris as the Eiffel Tower and red wine: the concierges who, from their small ground-floor apartments, watch over buildings and their tenants.

https://p.dw.com/p/15JhA
Portugal's Eugenia Manuel brings back a garbage bin in the courtyard of the apartment building where she works as a concierge, or guardian, in Paris, Wednesday March 26, 2008. They take out the garbage, sweep stairwells, keep a trained eye peeled for trespassers and listen to gripes, gossip and, sometimes, heartaches. In the past decade, Paris alone has lost at least 10,000 concierges, or guardians, and France has lost some 100,000, replaced mainly by cleaning companies. (ddp images/AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)
Image: AP

A number of months ago a school opened to train new applicants for the job. Writers and filmmakers have immortalized the concierge: usually a middle-aged woman who knows everything about her building, watches over it and gossips even more about it. But in the past number of years, many of these caretaker positions have disappeared. Three years ago a countertrend set in. Parliament decided that concierge positions could be cut only if all the residents of an apartment building agreed. The new school is intended to prepare future concierges better for the job. In addition to cleaning techniques, it offers conflict management and computer courses.

Blick vom Eiffelturm in Paris auf den Invalidendom (M) und das Pantheon (r im Hintergrund), aufgenommen am 11.09.2008. Foto: Waltraud Grubitzsch +++(c) dpa - Report+++
Image: picture-alliance/ dpa