Combing the streets for old saucepans and smashing off the plastic handles appears to be common practice in France, even in charming tourist territory like Montmartre. It's called 'Recup' and it seems to take many forms. In Montmartre just after Christmas I saw a woman furtively whisk from her handbag quite a large saw which she then used to attack a discarded Christmas tree, swiftly severing the tree from the useful log that had been its base in a matter of seconds, before that too went into the handbag. Having walked around with quite a lot in a handbag but never a saw, I wondered if it was just during the post Christmas season that she kept her saw in there or whether it is a more permanent feature. Presumably there's always a bit of handy table leg or old chair that can be carved up if you only happen to have the right equipment to hand. Philippe, my neighbour in the countryside, was busy at the weekend squashing some hefty looking copper wire into ball shapes. It had apparently all come out of a transformer that he had bought for 15 euros. The wire itself, about 15 kilos of it, was going to sell for 5 euros a kilo. All he had to do was unwind it all from the transformer, and then put it all into an old oil drum cut in half with a fire in it to burn off any sticky bits. Then presto. Another friend makes clutch bags out of old tea towels. Someone else turned up at the gate in the countryside asking to take away an old metal stove that had come out of the kitchen. But what to do, if your neighbour thinks you should do the recup yourself? My wood burning stove came on a wooden crate, secured in a large metal cage. I offered it to Philippe. 'Oh', he said, with a look of real surprise, 'but you can turn that into a table. All you need to do is get a piece of glass or wood the right size.' And for that, all I need, clearly, is the right sized handbag.