Bidets

[SaligoBay]

A bidet remains an object of curiosity to me. I had a bidet-free childhood, and am now faced with them everywhere I turn in France.

Handy for washing feet in, or draping a damp post-shower towel over.

But any other use is beyond me. I assume you're meant to sit on it? But what direction do you face? I've tried every position I can think of, and they're all uncomfortable.

Do you get pleasure from your bidet? Would you miss it if an alien came in one night and replaced it with an armchair?

[letrangere]

I know that I could never ever live without one. We keep both of ours topped up with fresh water so much loved canine never goes thirsty.

M

[A_Redman]

> But what direction do you face? I've tried every position I can think of, and they're all uncomfortable.
>
They are uncomfortable, which way round you sit or kneel on them depends on which part of you anatomy you are planning to wash or rinse. They are far less common than they used to be. In the 60s when en suite or any bathrooms in hotels were much scarcer they were fairly common.

The really fun ones had a second toilet bowl with flexible plumbing which hinged down instead of the toilet seat

[Teamedup]

The first one I encountered was a free standing plastic one on a special stand in an italian hotel and was convinced as it really was foot shaped that that was what it was for washing.

Friends parents got one and when I turned the tap on water hit me in the face, so I wasn't sure where one was supposed to be positioned to use it either.

We've had one since we've moved here and can't imagine life without one. You sit which ever way you want, and wash what you want, how you want. I think it is just getting used to using one that is the thing.

[Chrissie]

Why are bidets always so LOW? The ones in our house are all only about 30cms off the ground. Husband at 6ft 3ins, erm...about 195cms?..... can't even consider getting all the way down there and wouldn't have a hope in h*ll of getting back up again afterwards! Perhaps we should take up the dog-drinking idea.
Chrissie

[Kergano]

I think it was Billy Wilder, the film director, who was on a trip to Europe when he got a request from his wife to buy a spray-bidet. After a while she got a telegram, "Unable to find spray bidet. Suggest hand-stand in shower".

ian

[Val_2]

I too had a bidet free upbringing, there wouldn't have been room in most 1930's semis anyway and still don't need one, but after just giving birth to both my kids I will never forget the huge hospital one with its lovely warm jets soothing all those sore stitches. We always used to keep our cans and bottles of beer cold in them in spanish hotel rooms or soak the socks.

[Neil]

About 15 years ago, I stayed in the guesthouse of a convent in Normandy, which was equipped in traditional French style with washbasin and bidet, but no bath or shower. There was nothing for it. I had to bathe every morning in the stream that ran through the grounds. Ils sont fous ces Anglais.

Mind you, I never found what the Sisters (if any of them ever saw) thought of a naked man using *their* stream.