Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

New Series: What to Expect When You Come to France

What to Expect when you are in France… I will be posting the odd things to expect, not the beautiful, knock your socks off things that I post usually. Get ready for off beat and weird Corey what knots.

Plan your toilet breaks.
Toilets are hard to find.
Often you have to pay…
One way or another:
Hold it in.
Or hope you have exact change.
Or have hours to kill to find one,
And hopefully when you do there is toilet paper.

If you cannot find a toilet, look for a fast food restaurant… McDonald's the best free toilet in town.

New Series: What to Expect When You Come to France

New Series: What to Expect When You Come to France

New Series: What to Expect When You Come to France

New Series: What to Expect When You Come to France

New Series: What to Expect When You Come to France

Comments

27 responses to “New Series: What to Expect When You Come to France”

  1. Lana Kloch

    speaking of differences in countries…did you know that australia serves hamburgers with slices of beets instead of tomatoes? and black coffee is called a “long black”..interesting..can’t wait for more postings…

    Reply
  2. Shannon

    Corey, you really need to work on that book we talked about you doing when I visited you, taking pictures of bathrooms all over France. It would make a great….bathroom book!

    Reply
  3. denisesolsrud@hotmail.com

    i have known this about toilets long ago and that is what stops me from coming. 🙂 HA,HA. that isn’t right the lack of toilets. i would panic! and i would have good reason. Bestest,Denise

    Reply
  4. mary

    Better bring some poise or depends if I come:)…I wouldn’t want an accident

    Reply
  5. Chris Wittmann

    Yikes! I thought I was the only gal who obsessed about where toilets are located while traveling 🙂 But to have to pay to pee? Holy croissant, that’s too much!
    I recall my dad telling me about the toileting facilities in France during WWII…sounded pretty gruesome. He also claimed the women didn’t wear underpants…now how he knew THAT was beyond my young naive mind.

    Reply
  6. Jeannie

    Mon Dieu! I would be weighted down with Euros and dashing around in panic. Or, do trips out in an arc with dashing abilities back to the hotel.Don’t the French have to use the facilities? Or is that another thing French women don’t do? LOL!

    Reply
  7. Tracy

    I think I am going to like these posts.
    (The real gritty)

    Reply
  8. Merisi in Vienna

    Love the sign that sends you up to the 5th floor. I try to imagine desperate ladies trying to make it upstairs and back …. 😉
    Seriously, I don’t remember ever seeing public restrooms (!) in Washington, DC, except in shopping malls.

    Reply
  9. Paulita

    Ha! This is true. Plus once you get in there, you won’t necessarily understand how to flush the toilet because the toilets are far from standard.

    Reply
  10. Floss

    Hmm – I’ve never actually had to pay, here around Toulouse! In Italy, though, that was different – but on the other hand, all the old horrors of Italian toilets seem long gone, while the French do still have one or two really scary ones. I carry toilet paper with us in the car when we go on a long journey. Antiseptic hand gel too, if I’m organised. I agree about McDo’s! And in the UK, you can’t use a restaurant toilet if you’re not a customer, but the French seem a lot more relaxed about that, which is nice.

    Reply
  11. Lauren

    this is the kind of stuff you really wanna know before traveling overseas!!

    Reply
  12. Zosia

    Do they have hooks for your coat or a purse in the French bathrooms? In Poland it is hit and miss. I wrote about it here http://polonicahomeagain.blogspot.com/2011/11/adjusting-ode-to-lowly-hook-wrastanie.html

    Reply
  13. WR

    How true! I would add: keep a little package of kleenex in your purse and develop core muscles to be prepared to squat if necessary.
    This summer, I noticed they had a men’s old fashioned pissoir in and underground parking lot but nothing for women!

    Reply
  14. Frank Levin

    We have learned that when motoring in France you are never more than one hour away from a McDonalds.In addition to wonderful toilettes the wi-fi is free and reliable and the cafe is available in a large size.

    Reply
  15. Deborah

    too funny! We when we were in Paris and on the Champs élysée, the only bathroom we found was at McDonald’s, but you had to buy something in order to use facilities. Not a problem (sometimes you’d pay whatever they ask if it’s an emergency!)’ because as someone also noted, you can come way with an American -sized vat of coffee.

    Reply
  16. Marilyn

    I imagine sometime you would pay about anything to be able to use a toilet. I remember having to pay near the Notre Dame and then the woman working there wanting a tip too. Then in Arles found a free toilet that was dirty and a standing, hole in the floor. By then I was desperate. And no drinking and light eating when out unless you know there is a toilet nearby.

    Reply
  17. Lisa Johnson

    When I was in France about 7 years ago, I thought it was funny that I had to pay .50 euros to pee at Versaille. Also a tip I got from a travel book said to march into a cafe, head toward the back like and act like you’ve been there before. I did try this once or twice and it worked out pretty well.

    Reply
  18. Rhonda

    I don’t think I used but 2 public bathrooms the whole week I was in Paris and Versailles. Too funny, now that I think about it. I didn’t pay either time but one was in a McDonalds near the flea market and it was the men’s room, long line, who cared?

    Reply
  19. Irina

    The best public toilets are in Hong Kong! Free, always stocked with everything, toilet paper, seat covers, seat disinfectant spray, soap; clean with a cleaning lady on duty. I REALLY appreciate their hard work after returning to Hong Kong from traveling to anywhere in Europe or the States. Yes, it is much much better here with this matter than in the States. South Korea is another country that I was impressed with. We go there to ski sometimes and while driving to the ski resort you got to stop at the rest area. There are toilets there not just very clean but have heated toilet seat 😉

    Reply
  20. Jill Flory

    Great thing to know Corey! I’m gonna like this series too! Here in the states a restroom is as close as the next exit or the next corner! I get kind of used to that!

    Reply
  21. Kathie B

    We found free, clean, modern public restrooms on the two university campuses (Université de Paris Ouest-Nanterre Défense, and Cité Internacional Universitaire de Paris) where I attended conference events last year.
    My pet peeve in Europe is the dearth of public drinking fountains with free water for all, which we so take for granted here in the US, in the name of the public good. Then again, maybe that’s why the French don’t need to use public toilets as much as we Americans do, either 😉

    Reply
  22. La Contessa

    Oh, how I adore YOU!That is so true even in ITALY!!!!!!They hide the Toilets!I always tell people going for the first time to carry T.paper in their bag!The last time I was in Paris i stopped for a drink at a cafe……….well I tried to use the toilet and couldnot figure out the coin operated thing (I think it was jammed)and was so mad I just went to the subway!IT wasnot too bad!!!!!!!!!!My ITALIAN husband told me years ago they are afraid your going to steal the sinks etc!!!!!!!!!When I lived in Florence I knew where every public restroom was even the one hidden in the MENS department in COIN!GREAT POST!!!!!!!!!!!xxx

    Reply
  23. victoria

    Too funny… Ireland and Scotland have very clean and beautiful restrooms EVERYWHERE!
    But then we often give the French too much credit for having everything I suppose… although being part French myself… I am quite partial to their sense of style and food!
    Thank you for posting this!
    Victoria

    Reply
  24. jend’isère

    I was challenged with a “turkish toilet” at a Paris immigration office. Jungling documents over my shoulderbag while positioning high heels and pantyhose must have been the test to achieve my resident visa!

    Reply
  25. Kathie B

    Farmboy Husband and I had an, ahem, interesting conversation this evening, after I asked him where he found public restrooms in Paris, and if they charged. I wasn’t getting a lot of traction with him, because he couldn’t imagine why I’d be asking at all (LOL!), let alone so long after the fact, so I explained re this post, which helped a bit.
    He said when he was out sightseeing in Paris on his own for a couple days last year when he didn’t come to the conference with me, he found FREE toilet booths at the Arc de Triomphe and at some famous big basilica or other on a hill from which there was a really good view (perhaps you know the one he means). He added that he noticed that at the huge Metro station a few blocks from our hotel (which was on the border of the 3rd and 4th Arrondissements), a lot of men just whipped it out and relieved themselves publicly (I do seem to recall a certain stench, now that I think about it).
    Farmboy Husband added that the morning we took a guided tour of Paris’ Hôtel de Ville (City Hall), we used the restrooms there, while I also recall using a ladies room in a huge department store on the corner just across the street — both free — after we ate lunch in their store cafeteria (although I think it was on a different floor). Do you know which department store this might have been? Perhaps the info can help others.

    Reply
  26. Kathie B

    Farmboy Husband just checked a guidebook from our Paris trip, and said the Basilica in question was Sacre Cœur (Sacred Heart). Not only were the toilet booths there free, they also kept you locked in the booth until the self-cleaning cycle finished (not a great choice for the claustrophobe).

    Reply
  27. Alan

    I like to use the toilets in hotel lobbies. You have to look for them, but they are clean. I don’t know if that translates to Paris. The only public toilet I used in Paris was in the Marais, and it was a big thing out on the side walk that you paid for. When You left, it automatically cleaned itself.

    Reply

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