This weekend, I went to Paris and had a chance to do and see all the typical things. I went to the Eiffel Tower, saw the Notre Dame and the Moulin Rouge, ate crepes, and saw the Mona Lisa and all kinds of other beautiful artwork in the Lourve.
But the one thing that made the trip less enjoyable was the restroom situation. Apparently, restrooms are extremely scarce in Paris. There were free public toilets set up in some touristy spots, but those weren't always easy to find when you needed one. I'm used to being able to go into almost any store or fast-food restaurant and use the bathroom, but that wasn't the case in Paris. A friend and I searched for almost an hour at one point, but everywhere we asked said that we had to eat there (in the case of restaurants) or that they simply had no public restrooms. Finally, after we passed by one restaurant again, still searching for a bathroom, the host who had offered to seat us before took pity on us and let us use the restroom for free.
We were grateful, but still surprised when we actually saw the bathrooms. We opened the door to the women's restroom and saw that the seat had been ripped off the toilet. I suggested we use the men's instead since there was no one else around, but it was just a hole in the floor. Over the course of the weekend, most of the restrooms I saw were in pretty poor condition--bugs, grime, or just broken. It had never occurred to me to be grateful for something as simple as a bathroom, but I don't think I will be complaining about a British or American bathroom anytime soon.
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Did you never get the chance to use one of France's "self-cleaning toilets"? This was one of the most insane, different from America, phenomenon I have seen yet I think. They are these stand alone small buildings on the streets of Paris which are like port-a-potty but an actually large-ish structure that really flushes and isn't disgusting and smelly. The interesting thing is though that once you leave the bathroom, it registers the lack of weight inside and literally washes down the ENTIRE room. How's that for sanitation? Besides the risk of maybe slipping on mildly wet floors, this seemed like something the germaphobes of America could unite behind...not to mention, how would every minimum wage teen like to not have bathroom duty. Anyways, I thought this bathrooms were worth a mention, but beware, if you are less than 100 pounds you should go in with another person because it might try to clean you as you are too light. Also, in some of the restrooms the inventor of these handy self-cleaners has left his contact info so you can ring him up with a hardy "well-done!"
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