Paris Needs More Pissoirs!
Oct 28th, 2004, 12:13 PM
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Paris Needs More Pissoirs!
Ah Paris, j'aime beaucoup mais --- you stink! On my recent wide-ranging European sojurn I was struck by one thing when I got to Paris - the place reeks of urine! When walking along the streets you often get a whiff of the leavings of Parisians. And it's not just the clochards ('wine bags') who dot the trottoirs clutching their bottle, or box of cheap wine who violate the streets, I've even seen respectable men relieving themselves in public, and in Rome do like the Romans do, and even myself, in times of pain, have done likewise though I usually head for the ubiquitous Golden Arches to discretely hit the WC, though even some of these you need codes for to open. So Paris needs a whole lot more of the old-fashioned "pissoirs" urinals that once dotted the streets; some still survive but many have been replaced by the modern self-cleaning public toilet, which, however costs over a buck to use. The wine-bags could buy a bottle of cheap wine for that cost. Added to the human liquid waste are the droppings of many dogs - in Paris someone has even estimated that if you don't look down you will step in dog doo every so many steps! The city has launced an aggressive program to clean the sidewalks with fancy super sucking machines but it's hard to keep up. Vespa-chiens (dog toilets, a sandbox whose name is a take-off on "Vespasiennes", or seatless "Turkish Toilets" supposedly introduced to France by the Roman Emperor Vespa, but these seem to be rarely used.
Oct 28th, 2004, 12:17 PM
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I think Paris probably has enough pissoirs. I just think there's some peculiar tendency for French men to urinate in public. It's not just Paris. Go out in the country and you see them by the side of the road all over the place.I've often thought of going on a road trip with a good camera and putting together a coffee-table book of these guys in action 
Oct 28th, 2004, 12:31 PM
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"I've often thought of going on a road trip with a good camera and putting together a coffee-table book of these guys in action."
St. Cirq, if it becomes a best seller, I can hear you singing
"Urine the Money."
St. Cirq, if it becomes a best seller, I can hear you singing
"Urine the Money."
Oct 28th, 2004, 03:57 PM
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Unless I seriously mis-remember, Vespasiennes are or were those beloved open-air urinals -- colloquially, pissoirs. Not "Turkish" toilets at all. And indeed they were named for Vespasian.......
