OK, after seeing so much of this around the city, I’ve finally decided that people are purposely leaving shoes and clothes (and suitcases?) on benches and on sidewalks for the homeless. It is definitely a problem here—people sleeping in doorways of stores and beautiful buildings; camping out on sidewalks with boxes, discarded chairs, bags and bags of things collected along the way; reclining on warm pavement grids above the Metro; etc. Even this morning when I was inside the Louvre around
10:30: the view out of Napoleon’s former stables (now displaying various statues) towards I. M. Pei’s Pyramid was interrupted by the “bedroom” of a homeless person against the window. I felt like a peeking Tom. (When I walked by the stables a couple hours later, he had packed everything up and left for the day.) 
I can’t tell you how many pictures I’ve taken like these…so that must be the reason. Instead of dropping clothes and shoes in a Goodwill box or at a Salvation Army store (I haven’t seen anything similar here), the Parisians are just leaving their used clothes on the streets. Even on the outside wall of one of the major department stores, there are pictures of discarded clothes. I’m going to leave some clothes when I go home next week…but I’ve decided to leave them in the apartment with a note for the cleaning lady. She can do with them as she pleases.
