Sunday, March 13, 2016

Dreaming of France -- French Bathrooms


Thank you for joining 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 always intrigued by French bathrooms. Some of them are very primitive while others are over the top.
Luckily, for years we haven't run into Turkish toilets, those are the ones that have a place for a foot on either side of a drain. The expectation is to squat over the drain and take care of business. I don't think most Americans have the thigh muscles for that. Plus, for a woman wearing pants, something is always going to get wet.
The bathrooms are getting more interesting in France.
Here's the bathroom in the Charles de Gaulle airport, the first one I entered when we got to France.

Look at those colors. They will wake you up after a long flight. Plus the doors are nice and tall so you don't have to worry about anyone stealing your bags or purse.


Here's another angle of those same doors and the long trough sink. It's all very modern at the airport.

Bathrooms in  hotel rooms are generally small compared to American expectations. We never care because we're there for the fun outside the hotel room, but Americans can be quite surprised.
Here's our bathroom in the Quality Inn on Rue Mouffetard in Paris. You can see that there was very little knee room between the toilet and the wall, and you could fall into the tiny shower straight from the toilet.
We laughed about the tiny bathroom, but since we spent three nights in Paris and the hotel price was included with the airfare, so basically free. We might have considered a Turkish toilet at that price. 

At a restaurant in Marseille, I headed down the stairs to the basement, where the toilets are often located. This one included a block of colored light that changed throughout the entire experience.


From orange


to blue


to pink. 
I felt like I was in a disco. 
The French definitely have a lot more fun with their bathrooms than we do in the US.


13 comments:

Lee I said...

Oh, the tales to tell about French toilettes. I can no longer do the squat at the squat toilet either. It's sometimes difficult to get up from a regular low toilet. My sister and I take GoGirls with us. So far, just having one in my possession almost seems to preclude those urgent moments. I have friends whose solution is wearing skirts and going commando. I must say, it's much easier to find someplace to go now than it was many years ago.

Paulita said...

Lee, I'll have to figure out what GoGirls is. Thanks for commenting!

Lee I said...

You can google it, or go to Amazon to read reviews and instructions. (smile emoji here)

Valerie said...

Oh the memories of Charles deGaulle Airport facilities! All part of life's fun experiences. (Thank you for visiting and the invitation to participate and enjoy your blog about fascinating France). "I shall return!"

our life in france said...

I have lived in france for 7 years and been visiting for 20 and trust me the toilets don't get any better

Paulita said...

Valerie and Roz, Thanks so much for joining in. I always enjoy reading about new experiences in France.

Elizabeth at Eiffel Tells said...

Hello Paulita, thank you for dropping by my blog and leaving a lovely comment. I'm pleased to have met another francophile and am now following your blog. Out last experience in CDG was so bad that now we fly into Switzerland and get the train to My French Folly from there instead of Gare de Lyon where the crowds in summer resemble ants at a picnic!

Paulita said...

Elizabeth, Interesting idea. Maybe someday we'll be pros at our trips to France and choose another airport too. So far, CDG has been good to us.
Thanks so much for playing along with Dreaming of France.

The French Hutch said...

Oh dread of the Turkish toilets! The disco toilet, I wouldn't mind!
Thanks for hosting………..

Deb said...

Thank you for stopping by and leaving your lovely comment.
I'm not in France at the moment unfortunately, but I did see 2 French films for the French Film Festival going on in Sydney at the moment.

As for French bathrooms - they are a surprise. And your shower looks much bigger than the one we had in Montmartre lol.

I've experienced those other dreaded toilets too, but not in France :)

Sim Carter said...

Sorry I’m so late but you’re so busy this week, I don’t think you even missed my post. And by the way, be careful running today. After all, it is the Ides of March.

Paulita said...

French Hutch, Debs and Sim, So glad you visited my Dreaming of France meme, even if it is in the toilet this week. The more the merrier.

Jeanie said...

No links but what a fun post! Love that deGaulle bathroom! My bathroom memory is my friend Jerry's -- he's an antique collector and I loved all the old bottles he had -- and the checkerboard tile floor!

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