Sunday, May 25, 2014

Dreaming of France -- Bathrooms

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
I'm exhausted after all the graduation hoopla this weekend, but I'm still dreaming of France while watching a House Hunters International with a couple looking for an apartment in Grenoble, France.
Does this bother anyone else who loves France? I'm watching a couple who allegedly are entranced by France, and they are always surprised by the bathrooms.
Yes, the bath and the sink are in one room. The toilet is in a separate room in many French apartments and houses.
Maybe they have never visited France before, or maybe they only stayed in American-style hotels so didn't realize the French frequently separate the toilet from the rest of the bathroom, but surely they've seen it when they watched other people on House Hunters International.
When Earl and I went to France the last time, we ate at a well-known steakhouse le Relais de l'Entrecote (a chain as our French friend pointed out).
Here's the outside of the restaurant:

For some reason, I took a picture, a selfie, in the bathroom mirror. So since I'm obsessing about people complaining about bathrooms in France, I thought I'd feature that.
I took out my phone to take a picture of the strange way the toilet flushes, because in France, almost every toilet has a different was to flush -- chains or buttons or a handle built into the side. I didn't get pictures of enough different kinds of toilets to write a blog post about it though. 
Did you have to adjust to weird toilets in France? Would you complain if you got to find an apartment in France?
Hope everyone in the U.S. is having a wonderful holiday weekend, our Memorial Day. 
Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. 

12 comments:

Mystica said...

But I still don't get why its a problem!!!! ok its different but so what?

Paulita said...

I agree. Sometimes Americans are so rigid. They move to another country and want it to be just like home.

Louise said...

I love the fun of foreign toilet styles (as long as they're not too foreign- but that's not usually in France) and will often take a photo, maybe I'll do a post someday.

Sim Carter said...

I love the idea of doing a photo essay on French toilets! Next time, eh?

Linda said...

The Turkish toilet with just a hole in the floor is the one I hate. I think the majority of French toilets flush with one of those metal buttons in the middle of the lid but, in our place, our toilet flushes like the one in your photo.

Adria said...

Yes, the toilet thing here is a big preoccupation of mine... especially now that I go out with my three and a half year old daughter. I always plan ahead and make sure we go to places that have large enough toilet stalls. Otherwise, I've gotten used to the different types of buttons and pull chains for flushing!

Just Me said...

I'm right there with you on this one. It's as if the producers said, "... now don't forget to complain like an American about the... obvious"

Jackie McGuinness said...

I don't understand if people have travelled why such things would bother/surprise them!! Even in Mexico we have had the toilet in a separate room at times. As for flushing that is always fun! Chains above, foot pedals, on the side, in the middle....

Leovi said...

Very nice self portrait at the toilet , lovely picture, I love!

Jacqui Brown said...

I've linked a French toilet post I did a while back, it's got some lovely toilet pictures, from ones prettily decorated on the outside to slightly dodgy ones inside!

Paulita said...

Jacqui, Perfect! Thanks.
Just Me, so glad you understand my pain about those uncouth Americans buying property abroad

Lee I said...

Yes, I always try to explain, right through the TV, to those house hunters that that's just the way it is in France and other non-US parts of the world and get over it.

Back before they had blogs and digital cameras (and you scrimped on film), I always wished I had a way to photograph French toilets and toilet paper, to make an unusual collection. I do feel they are becoming more uniform than in the past.

The first time we visited the public toilet at the entrance to Saint Paul de Vence, it required a consultation with a French user to figure it out. I went back more recently and wanted to see whether I could remember the secret, but the toilets had been replaced by something much more ordinary.

I used to use a squat toilet if one was available without a waiting line for it. But now that I have old lady knees and legs that won't stand me up without something to pull up by, preferably not urine-splattered, I've had to shy away from them.

Cockadoodle Doo or Cocorico?

 We stood in the middle of the road, having walked together 13 miles that day and Claudine grasped my forearm. "Mais non! It doesn'...