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Toilets in France


Angie
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We have had some really lovely holidays this past few years in some of the most beautiful villages in France. This year we took our young grandchildren with us and we had hoped by visiting such gorgeous places that the toilets might have been slightly better. Most were the usual disgusting variety but a couple were absolutely appalling. We couldn't use any of them. One was even right next to the Tourist Office! The place was heaving with tourists so surely it would be in the best interest of the village to clean them once in a while. Does anyone know why this seems to be the norm throughout France?
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This is one of my bugbears too, Angie. I think things have improved in recent years, but it can be a nightmare, especially with younger children. I have trained all my extended family to take toilet paper with them wherever they go.

While on the subject of public toilets why are there so few for women ? It always seems strange to me that while men can apparently pee anywhere they fancy, public provision for women is poor.
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Being a keen walker, I have at my disposal toilets en plein air where no one has used them recently!

If travelling by car, I pull off somewhere discreet and use only these lovely toilets, sometimes with a view[:D]

However, on the chemin de Compostelle, ALL toilets, including vast swathes of countryside have to be treated with caution.  Never look at a nice, shady, secluded corner on the route and think, that might be a good place to perform the necessary because, more often than not, thousands before you would have thought the same.

Cinders, I am sure you'd agree?[:P]

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Oh yes Mint, the joys of Camino walking..........................................hopefully soon to be enjoyed again for another stage in September. Of course we are talking about the Camino Francés in Spain.

One day we'll finally make it to Santiago de C[:)]

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Everyone says 'France is just like the UK was 60 years ago', this is indeed one area where it certainly is.

The answer is to use Mc Donalds or large supermarkets, still not up to UK standards for sure, but better and easier to find than public wc's in France. And of course Mc D will be open.

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Yes, agree. The only cleanish ones we've found are on the autoroutes in the service areas. Must say it really is a shame as I wouldn't take much to improve these facilities if each commune provided a mop, bucket and a vat of bleach to some keen villager wanting to earn a few euros. The only other time in Europe that I've been truly appalled by the toilet facilities was in Florence where I queued for 30 minutes, paid the equivalent of £2 to stand on a communal, metal "open air" platform and pee in the river, 20 feet below! God knows what I would have done had number twos been involved!!
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Alas, Angie, bleach might not be answer........wish life were that simple![:D]

I live in a village of about 500 and there is another village near us which is easily twice the size of ours and we do not have communal sewage treatment plants.

Bleach might therefore not be advisable in large quantities!

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Unreasonable expectations?

In 10 years in this area I have yet to see a public toilet, there is always a café open somewhere but you will be expected to buy a drink or pay for using their facilities, in that case then yes its reasonable to expect toilet paper and some cleanliness.

Cleaning and toilet paper are not needed for une toilette à la Turque yet they are the exact toilets that Bristish tourists complain about and say are disgusting.

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There speaks a man. A woman requires toilet paper each time she uses the toilet. I once worked at a school where there was a problem with excessive use of toilet paper. There was a suspicion that it was being stolen. Our union rep, a man, agreed that staff would find the caretaker and ask for toilet paper each time they needed some. Naturally there was an outcry among the women.

As for how things used to be in England 50 years ago, my memory of several small towns near where I lived is that they not only had public toilets some of them had attendants.
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[quote user="Hoddy"]There speaks a man. A woman requires toilet paper each time she uses the toilet. I once worked at a school where there was a problem with excessive use of toilet paper. There was a suspicion that it was being stolen. Our union rep, a man, agreed that staff would find the caretaker and ask for toilet paper each time they needed some. Naturally there was an outcry among the women.

As for how things used to be in England 50 years ago, my memory of several small towns near where I lived is that they not only had public toilets some of them had attendants.[/quote]

The use of toilet paper.......that's a topic all of its own.  Now I have to revisit the Camino because that is the one place in the developed world that I can think of where toilet facilities are still state of the ARK!

Apparently, loo paper takes over TWO years to disintegrate and, so using "toilets" in the countryside should preferably not involve women using loo paper.  If you envisage being out walking or whatever other activities, use a panty liner that would take care of drips.

Then if needing more than just a pee, the advice is that you take a plastic bag and bag up like you would for your dog and take it to a place of disposal.  Failing that, take a trowel and bury your own mess.

Good advice but I didn't come across anyone who did that during the nearly 7 weeks that I took to walk the Camino.  Consequently, and I have written about this, the whole of the Camino might have been dubbed the "Toilet Paper Trail"; the mess has to be seen to be believed.  World Heritage Site, it might be but, seriously, it would make you blanch if you have to attend to anything more personal than blisters of the feet[:P]

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Yuk!

Our small town has 2 very smart automatic toilets, kept sparking clean by the man who also goes round clearing up rubbish etc. Both are in car parks and are very well-used, especially on market days. I walk past one of them several times each day when we're in France and often think how lucky we are to have such things - I've not needed to use one yet, living just a couple of minutes walk from the nearest one. Perhaps I ought to in the name of research!
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This is a sad post, but I'll make it just the same.

For years, we've given points out of ten to any visited facilities.

Criteria are cleanliness (obvious), functionality (does it flush, does the lock work, etc), artistic merit (obvious).

Scores (not retained,other than in the memory) have tended to improve in recent years, but I'll never forget a Bar where I awarded the khasi a -2 score !!
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Our local supermarket used to have just one cubicle in the ladies, and in the gents there was a cubicle and a separate urinal. There was always a queue for the ladies so I was delighted when the toilet were closed for refurbishing. They opened again recently. The gents now has TWO cubicles AND one separate urinal. How wonderful. The ladies, however, retains just the one cubicle but the waiting area is bigger !!!!!!
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