My First Totobobo was During the Paris Pollution Crisis in 2014. Now in 2026, I’m Still Wearing One.
Susan K., Suresnes, Driving instructor near Paris, uses the Totobobo mask for cycling
In 2014, Paris had one of those terrible pollution episodes.
The weather had created a pressure zone that kept the city’s air trapped in the valley. They advised older people and children with asthma to stay inside. They even told healthy people not to go jogging.
I remember thinking, this can’t be good.
I’m not a scientist, but I have always been passionate about ecology and my health. It seemed logical to me that a hospital mask designed to stop bacteria might not be able to filter out the tiny particles in air pollution.
So I started looking for something that seemed more efficient.
I also had a bicycle at the time, and I think it was while looking through bicycle accessory websites that I discovered Totobobo.
I placed my order. Actually, I ordered two.
The second one was for my sister because she was coming to visit, and I wanted one ready for her, just in case.
I had no idea then that I would still be buying the same mask twelve years later.
Then COVID arrived.
By then I already had my Totobobo.
When everyone else suddenly started looking for masks, I already had something I trusted.
People used to look at me on the bus or the Métro with expressions that seemed to say,
“Poor old lady… she must be so sick.”
I was in my late sixties then.
I just smiled.
I have never had COVID. I wasn’t vaccinated, either. Of course I can’t say exactly why I never caught it—life isn’t that simple—but I never felt the need to stop wearing the mask that had already protected me through years of pollution.
My job didn’t allow me to stay home.
I’m a driving instructor, specialising in helping English-speaking expats obtain their French driving licences.
During the COVID years, I worked full-time.
Imagine sitting inside a small car with a different stranger every couple of hours.
That was my working day.
Hour after hour.
Day after day.
I never got sick.
Not even a common cold.
That experience made me a very confident and convinced return customer.
My old mask finally deserved retirement.
When I placed my latest order, Francis asked me why I was buying another one after so many years.
The answer was easy.
My old mask had simply become old.
I’d cleaned and disinfected it for years. The plastic had darkened with age, and I felt it had earned a well-deserved retirement.
It wasn’t because it had failed me.
It was because it had served me for so long.
One thing I forgot to mention…
After I wrote all of this to Francis, I realised I’d forgotten the simplest part.
The mask is comfortable.
It doesn’t move around.
And I always feel that I am getting enough air.
Those three things matter more than people realise.
If a mask is uncomfortable, you keep touching it.
If it slips, you keep adjusting it.
If it feels hard to breathe, you can’t wait to take it off.
This one never gave me those problems.
Why I keep coming back
People sometimes ask why I haven’t switched to something newer after all these years.
The truth is, I’ve never had a reason to.
It first helped me through one of Paris’ worst pollution episodes.
It stayed with me through years of cycling, buses, the Métro, and then through the entire COVID pandemic while teaching inside a car with hundreds of different students.
For me, that’s twelve years of trust.
And when something quietly does its job for that long, you stop thinking about replacing it.
You simply order another one when the old one has finally earned its retirement.
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