French Toilets
The sink and bidet in my room at the Hotel de Medicis in the Quartier Latin of Paris. Jim Morrison in a nearly identical room just below this one.
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See
the page on Jim Morrison's Bidet and Sink
for more on this specific plumbing.
See my page about Jim Morrison in Paris for more about his time there. |
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A urinal right next to a window, in the town
park in Cours-les-Barres, France,
along the
Canal Lateral a la Loire.
Also see the Loos with Views page. |
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The outhouse behind the church in Angoville au Plain, in Normandy.
Also see the Loos with Views page.
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The automated public toilets now common in France.
Originally they were coin-operated, but now they are free. |
The newer entry panel above shows an orange "unavailable" indicator — the toilet is in its cleaning cycle immediately after a use.
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The older one at left shows a green "LIBRE" or free indicator, it will open when you press the large button. |
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The toilet design has changed over time. |
The older ones, at left, had an unusual design. The bowl was just that — a bowl with no drain. It is flushed after you leave the compartment by rotating back into the wall and being hosed out.
The newer ones, at right, have a more conventional design. But they are still retracted and sprayed down after every use.
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Compartments on the panel above the toilet dispense toilet paper and provide water, soap, and hot air for hand cleaning. |
A floor sensor detects whether a person is really inside or not. If there is no person, or after a period of time even if there is a person, the door automatically opens.
After the person steps out, the door closes and the entire interior is sprayed with a disinfectant. The toilet bowl is rotated back into the wall and hosed out. After this quick cycle of 60 seconds or less, it is available for the next user.
Also see the Futuristic High-Tech Toilet page for more along these lines.
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An upscale squatter at a brasserie in Béziers, France. |
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A sink with a knee-controlled valve in a kebab shop
in Béziers, France.
It's much cleaner this way! |
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The toilet at the restaurant
La 7eme Vague (The 7th Wave)
in Port Cassafieres, France.
As commonly found in Europe, the flushing control is a tank-top split button allowing you to select just enough for #1 or a full flush for #2. |
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Very sturdily built concrete public urinals in Arles, France. |
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Municipal showers?
As in, "I'm going downtown to take a shower"? Somewhat mysterious, spotted in Arles, France. |
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A rock-cut toilet facility at the Monastery of St-Hilaire, in the Luberon region of Provence, east of Avignon.
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Well, there's just no delicate way of explaining this one....
This is an unusual flushing mechanism I encountered for the first time in a small hotel in Avignon. Pressing the flush button starts a complicated sequence:
- A hidden tank is filled
- That water is dumped into the bowl
- The plug-like impellor drops maybe two cm while spinning rapidly and a powerful vacuum attempts to pull the material in the bowl into the drain
- The hidden tank is filled again
- Another suction flush cycle with impellor spin occurs
I did see this fail to perform the desired function. Yes, yes, I stopped it up and had to poke around with the handle end of the toilet brush, and then clean up that mess. At least it did not go horribly wrong — the high-speed spinning hub seems to risk a rather spectacular failure mode.
| A Sani-Flush blue border indicates a toilet that I've used. |
If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):
