Starting with.. the toilet. I just can't leave this country without giving some insight on the culture of bathroom etiquette in Paris. Lindsay and I have spent an inappropriate amount of time giggling, explaining, and gossiping about our bathroom adventures.
When we first moved in our apartment, we noticed the toilet and shower were in completely separate rooms. This was bizarre, but something I was familiar with from my time in Tanzania. Of course, we just assumed our residential bathroom situation would be where our bathroom confusion stayed. Oh boy, were we wrong.
I've mentioned our favorite pub in previous posts, and this is where our first real toilet confusion happened. I asked to use the toilet during our very first visit, and first I ended up in the kitchen. When I finally found the appropriate door, I walked into a room with a skink and a urinal, which I had to walk past to get to a separate room with an actual toilet. So, I did what I had to do, came out to wash my hands, just as a man walked in. I did a little jump, as is normal for someone comes into the bathroom unannounced, but he didn't even give me a second glance as he walked up to the urinal. Okay, I guess he just realizes I am done.
The next time we were at the Pub, it was Lindsay who had the awkward bathroom encounter, and this time the tables were turned. She pulled open the main room door to find a man standing at the urinal. She quick shut the door and jumped back, embarrassed giggles pouring out. Just as we stood back to wait in line though, we noticed another woman who just walked right in and breezed past the man at the urinal. Okay, so... French people are conservative in clothes, not in privacy.
I experienced similar situations in many other bathrooms, so it eventually became custom to just look the other way. However, the toilette confusion didn't stop there. I have yet to see a single American flusher in Europe. Instead, most flushers are a round button. Sometimes, two round buttons, which I'm not sure why so I always just push both. Sometimes, it is not a round button on the toilet, but a round button on the wall. Other times it is some gadget connected to a pipe running from the toilet to the ceiling. For a long time, the I spent most of my time in the bathroom just simply trying to figure out how to flush.
Once you flush, you have to go through the same scavenger hunt for the sink. There have been plenty of times that the sink looks hands-free because there is no obvious nozzle, but it turns out it usually isn't. I am a true germaphobe, which plenty of my students can attest to, so I simply just won't accept this challenge as a feat. Usually there is some hidden button, like on the toilets, but there have been trickier times, like when it was a tiny step that needed to be pushed with your foot. Like, in that case, the restaurant staff really didn't think to make a sign?!
Some other notes on les toilettes:
- If there are stairs in the shop or restaurant, follow them. That is where the bathroom is.
- You are rarely going to find a clean bathroom (not even in Louis Vuitton!), so get in and get out as fast as possible.
- The isolated bathroom stalls scattered on the streets are actually typically way cleaner, if you are willing to spare a euro.
- I have a pretty hard time finding purse hooks in stalls or bathrooms, so be ready to makeshift.
- I've never had to pay for using a bathroom in a restaurant, even if I didn't eat or drink there.
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