You will find panties and menstrual cups, but also herbal teas to take during painful periods and a whole bunch of books dedicated to “ragnagnas”. Located close to the Capitole University and the Canal du Midi, at number 1 avenue Armand-Duportal,
Rañute, the very first shop dedicated to menstruation in France opens its doors this Saturday in Toulouse.
A concept that responds to a fundamental trend, especially when we know that each year 45 billion sanitary napkins are thrown around the world. “Today there is a real desire to go sustainable because these towels are made of 90% plastic which will take 500 years to decompose in nature even though they have only been worn for a few hours. In France, the consumption of sanitary napkins is the equivalent of three Montparnasse towers, ”explains Eléonore Arnaud, the founder of Rañute, who thus responds to the ecological aspirations of her clients.
She opened her first store in Switzerland just over a year ago. When she started, this 40-year-old wanted to be able to give answers to the questions posed by those who have chosen to switch to reusable or to start menstrual “cups”. “On the Internet, you can’t have a choice, you can’t try or have information when you ask yourself questions, like how you put a cup… It is not necessarily obvious. A shop is also a place of discussion without taboos, because even if you can read a lot of things on the Internet, nothing beats a conversation ”, continues the creator of the concept.
Feminist, ecology and egalitarian
And no question of limiting oneself to menstruation, here we can talk about perineum and urinary leaks, whether it is by evoking the means of doing rehabilitation or prevention. “We have no judgment, when we talk about rules, whether it is the color, the quantity or the smell, everyone lives it”, assures the one who wanted to create a company at the conjunction “of feminism, of the ecology and equal opportunities ”.
In this spirit, so that everyone can get into reusable, the store will offer “hanging panties”, funded by donations and available to those who cannot afford them. In the same vein, in Renens, the Swiss city where the first store was born, the town decided to finance vouchers in its store, a measure both social and waste reduction. At a time when local communities are financing disposable towel distributors, Eléonore Arnaud hopes that this Swiss initiative will gain ground in the Pink City.