Jill<br><br>Jill (99) Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 While we are on the subject of hygiene, that is (having spoken about dog muck in another topic), my son was staying with his penfriend in France last week and commented "they are a very strange family as they make sure they wash their apples before they eat them, but never wash their hands when they have been to the toilet."So true - there was a sink in the loo, but it had a plant growing in it, so the nearest sink was the kitchen unless you went upstairs to wash your hands. Of course, the upstairs loo, like in many French houses didn't have a sink in it either, so you had to walk along the corridor to the bathroom. So many times we have been to public loos only to find there is nowhere to wash hands, so then you end up using drinking water - must remember to carry baby wipes with me.One day last week, we had 7 French friends round to dinner and only one of them washed her hands. I know there are English people who don't either, but as my son says - why make such a song and dance about washing apples if you are lax in your personal hygiene?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tourangelle Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I agree, that not washing hands thing really really freaks me out too. We had a couple of friends of my husband's over for dinner a while back and neither of them washed their hands coming out of the toilet. They've invited us back and to be honest, it has put me off going! The French are always going on about having a "gastro", which does not seem to happen in Britain so much, I am sure it is the hand washing... or lack of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicfille Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 The lack of sinks in loos... now there's one of my pet hates. Our current (rented) house has precisely this problem, neither upstairs nor downstairs loos have sinks. Similarly, why do the French almost never have loos in their bathrooms? I can understand why when there is only one bathroom in the house, but surely if your house has two loos then one of them can be in an upstairs bathroom? Our landlord actually put in a wall between our upstairs shower room and the loo because "les toilettes étaient dans la salle d'eau!". Shock horror. Most new build houses around here have one ground floor bedroom with en-suite shower room (sink, shower, no loo). Meaning that you have to march across the entrance hall in your negligée to the loo before returning to the privacy of the boudoir to shower and dress. Kind of defeats the object of the en suite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 We haven't got a sink in our loo. We haven't in a couple of houses I have lived in in the UK either. We all wash our hands though.I hate this not washing hands thing too. They do not insist in maternelle either, well not where my kids went, which is the place to make good hygiene a good game and good lesson for life.Yup the constant gastros. Everyone gets gastros and touch wood, we don't. I asked at our pharmacie a year or so ago if there was a bug going round as everyone I knew seemed to be ill. The pharamasist said that there were no more than normal. My other pet hate is people licking fingers when making food or serving food. And these days I'm not particularly happy about people spitting on cake...... I know they are only trying to blow the candles out, but showering it like that seems rather yucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Over the years in France I have had to educate all the visiting kids to flush our loo every time they use it and NOT leave it stewing. I can only imagine the state of some loo bowls here if they don't flush after 8am until 5pm and as for saving water,what stupid nonsense when they always seem to be washing their cars every few days. I know what I prefer to do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Val that depends. We have been in this house, since 1983. We don't always flush at night and if it is just a pipi, then we don't always during the day either. Our loo is clean. I'm sure in some households they don't bother cleaning it. Also I blame all these products that are supposed to do all the cleaning, I suspect that some people think it is 'done' if they buy these. Quite simply I clean ours, and considering it's use over the years, I'm actually rather proud of it. And those 'blue' things, well when I tried them, I had a terrible job cleaning the loo later..... I would always ask guests to flush though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie15 Posted April 13, 2005 Share Posted April 13, 2005 [quote]Val that depends. We have been in this house, since 1983. We don't always flush at night and if it is just a pipi, then we don't always during the day either. Our loo is clean. I'm sure in some househ...[/quote]Oh, I didn't realise this was a "normal" French thing. Is it a water saving measure? Are French children brought up saving water then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted April 13, 2005 Share Posted April 13, 2005 For me it is to save water. I am prudent with water.WHEREAS, I just cannot believe how wasteful every last english guest (family/friends) we have had in this house has not been. It is awful, it drives me nuts. People will leave a tap running whilst brushing their teeth, for example. They will walk away from the said tap and be chatting from the bathroom door. They will leave the tap on for someone else? Now that does my head in. If anyone has any idea as to what that is about, please let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill<br><br>Jill (99) Posted April 13, 2005 Author Share Posted April 13, 2005 [quote]The lack of sinks in loos... now there's one of my pet hates. Our current (rented) house has precisely this problem, neither upstairs nor downstairs loos have sinks. Similarly, why do the French alm...[/quote]"Loos in bathrooms" - yes - essential. If I have a long soak and read in the bath with a glass of wine, I'm quite likely to want to go to the loo during this time, so certainly wouldn't be wanting to traipse down the corridor mid-soak!Also - no loo in an en suite? How stupid! I'm sure many of us nip to the loo in the middle of the night, but how many of us wake up at 3 in the morning and want a quick shower?!"Our landlord actually put in a wall between our upstairs shower room and the loo because "les toilettes étaient dans la salle d'eau!". Shock horror." Of course - you could be picking up all sorts of germs from the loo while you are having the shower or bath - the same ones they are carrying round on their hands after going to the loo without washing.I've not looked in France, but in England you can buy various notices which say things like "now wash your hands". Perhaps all of you who have places in France need to get one of these notices. If people don't understand it, they may come out saying what does it mean and then you can have a lovely conversation about how gastro is spread by not washing hands after going to the loo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie15 Posted April 13, 2005 Share Posted April 13, 2005 [quote]For me it is to save water. I am prudent with water. WHEREAS, I just cannot believe how wasteful every last english guest (family/friends) we have had in this house has not been. It is awful, it dr...[/quote]"leave the tap running for the next person" That's pretty incroyable!!!! I have to admit to often running the tap whilst brushing my teeth though What about all the hot water blokes often waste whilst shaving?Tons of the stuff lunging towards the waste pipe at a fantastic rate of knots!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceni Posted April 13, 2005 Share Posted April 13, 2005 My pet hate is something I have only seen in Brits houses over here and it is agains building regs for new houses in the UK - small windowless toilets with no VMC or extractor fan. I find these totally horrific and when I find one I will not use it again - imagine going in and having to try not to breathe whilst using it as someone has used it before you. It would also make me very concious of what I did in there as someone would have to use it after me.The Canadians have a phrase for saving water which we tend to use. If its brown, flush it down, if its yellow let it mellow. We have white stain free toilets as like TU I clean mine with loo cleaner and a brush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicfille Posted April 13, 2005 Share Posted April 13, 2005 Ooh Jill I'm so glad you agree with me. Some of our French friends think I'm slightly obsessed with the sink-in-loo and loo-in-bathroom issue so I feel a bit less wierd when someone agrees with me!On the water-saving thing, while staying with my future in-laws I once flushed the loo during the night and thought I'd hit on the reason why they flushed it so little and never at night - they have the noisiest flush I've ever heard! I was deeply embarrassed at the thought that I might have woken the entire household. But it turned out to be nothing to do with the racket, but to save water. Strangely this only applies to the men in the house - his mother & sisters always flush.Re windows in loos - the noisy loo in question has a high window not on an outside wall but opening onto the adjoining bathroom! Thus one person can lie in the bath chatting or listening to another on the loo. Lovely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxtrot Posted May 13, 2005 Share Posted May 13, 2005 [quote]For me it is to save water. I am prudent with water. WHEREAS, I just cannot believe how wasteful every last english guest (family/friends) we have had in this house has not been. It is awful, it dr...[/quote]French water is metred, not much English water is which means perhaps that in France we are more careful. We don't flush at night because of gurgly piping and children's bedrooms and I have to whizz round in the morning checking the loos and flushing. I do have a gripe with our 2 boys (5 and 6) who are not good at flushing - too many other interesting things to do. Coincidently, yesterday evening I added an extra column to their ongoing star chart - they're now going to have crosses for not flushing cos' I'm fed up.On the whole I'd say that even if they're not great at flushing, they do wash their hands after going to the loo even though the one upstairs doesn't have a basin. We make sure they wash hands before lunch and I know that the school asks them to as well (not sure about the loo set up though). Small daughter aged 2 is obsessed with hand washing - loves soap and will do it too often rather than not enough - think the fact the we breathe down siblings' neck until they do the deed has led to a bit of overkill for her.My French husband has extremely good rules of hygiene - he was brought up on a farm and mother used to make father change out of his work overall in the shed and into home clothes before he came into the house; when I met my husband, father was still working on the farm and I never saw him bring a scrap of dirt into the house - before coming in he always washed his hands (and most of his arms) in the outside sink. Have been on a lot of French farms and this wasn't always the case.On the other hand, I went to an English boarding school for most of my young life and grew up with pretty dodgy ideas about when to wash hands and all the rest - the good habits I now have were picked up in France... (OK, so I probably wouldn't eat off the floor in my house, but the loos are clean).Katie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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