Paris' Sanisettes Are Now Free
Jul 21st, 2006, 01:32 PM
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Paris' Sanisettes Are Now Free
Good news for those of us who have been caught with our pants up, with not enough change, (U.S. equivalant of about 50 cents) to drop into one of the automated public facilities.
As of February of this year, the City is absorbing the cost of their useage. They are planning to replace all 420 of them as soon as next year.
Quoting from Paris Notes - Paris is now officially a 'No Fee to Pee Zone'.
Now maybe more people will use them, need I say more.
Nina
As of February of this year, the City is absorbing the cost of their useage. They are planning to replace all 420 of them as soon as next year.
Quoting from Paris Notes - Paris is now officially a 'No Fee to Pee Zone'.
Now maybe more people will use them, need I say more.
Nina
Jul 21st, 2006, 02:02 PM
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They made this change quite a few months ago... when we were there in May, it seemed that some of them were being utilized as sleeping berths after 10pm or so (always 'occupée'). The couple times I used any, they were as clean as usual. You may not realize they have an automatic cleaning system, once you depart and the door closes.
Jul 21st, 2006, 02:21 PM
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Jul 21st, 2006, 02:40 PM
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They made them free as of February 2006, and it sounds like they are replacing the old ones, as we pee, oooooops, I mean as we speak.
I sure could have used a freeby last October about midnight, but that's a whole nuther thread ;-)
Nina
I sure could have used a freeby last October about midnight, but that's a whole nuther thread ;-)
Nina
Jul 21st, 2006, 09:00 PM
#9
The homeless cannot use them to sleep for the night - an alarm goes off after 2à minutes. But I think that sanisettes put themselves automatically out of service after 10 p.m. for sexual and drug reasons.
Jul 22nd, 2006, 02:59 AM
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Most of the sanisettes are converted to free use now. They usually close at 10 PM, but a handful are open 24 hours a day.
Sanisettes clean themselves after each use, with water and scrubbing brushes and disinfectant. When they are properly maintained, they are very clean. Each one contains a toilet, a place to wash one's hands, and a supply of toilet paper (if nobody has used it all up).
They can be uncomfortably warm in summer because they are not air-conditioned. In winter they are heated, though.
The standard toilets have also been made free. These are the ones with attendants, such as those at Madeleine, near the Arc de Triomphe, at the base of the Butte Montmartre, and so on. These toilets are cleaned by human beings so they are always tidy.
Toilets in railway stations still cost money, although the latest generation of McClean toilets and their ilk are often extremely clean.
Sanisettes clean themselves after each use, with water and scrubbing brushes and disinfectant. When they are properly maintained, they are very clean. Each one contains a toilet, a place to wash one's hands, and a supply of toilet paper (if nobody has used it all up).
They can be uncomfortably warm in summer because they are not air-conditioned. In winter they are heated, though.
The standard toilets have also been made free. These are the ones with attendants, such as those at Madeleine, near the Arc de Triomphe, at the base of the Butte Montmartre, and so on. These toilets are cleaned by human beings so they are always tidy.
Toilets in railway stations still cost money, although the latest generation of McClean toilets and their ilk are often extremely clean.
Jul 22nd, 2006, 06:03 AM
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About the automatic cleaning:
I suppose the free use will now eliminate the previous fairly common habit of one person using it, and then another standing by to quickly sneak inside when the door opened to let the paying person out. We stood and watched that one day and once the "freebie" guy was inside, we heard the powerful cleaning spray machinery go into action. We waited patiently to see the sheepish guy emerge dripping wet with god-knows-what kinds of dangerous chemicals all over his body.
I suppose the free use will now eliminate the previous fairly common habit of one person using it, and then another standing by to quickly sneak inside when the door opened to let the paying person out. We stood and watched that one day and once the "freebie" guy was inside, we heard the powerful cleaning spray machinery go into action. We waited patiently to see the sheepish guy emerge dripping wet with god-knows-what kinds of dangerous chemicals all over his body.
Jul 22nd, 2006, 12:41 PM
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Neopolitan ..that story is toooo funny - DH must have had numerous premonitions about this happening to him ... every time I have asked (read that as a wifely TOLD) him to jump in for a freebie, he has always declined ;-)
Nina
Nina
Jul 22nd, 2006, 01:18 PM
#15
The sanisette was clearly malfunctioning if this really happened. Anybody who lives in Paris knows that any weight on the floor panel of a sanisette prevents the cleaning process from starting. This was made clear in the horrible accident about 20 years ago when an 8-year-old girl was killed by the machinery in a sanisette because she crawled up on the seat to play (?) and the mechanism decided that the cleaning cycle could begin. The sanisettes were all closed for several months, and when they reopened, a new notice appeared on the panel : forbidden to unaccompanied children. The notice is of course still marked on every sanisette.
Jul 22nd, 2006, 01:32 PM
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malfunction then it may have been, because I did see it. The guy who snuck in was probably 13 or 14. The cycle was very short, shorter than the usual wait for the thing to clean, so maybe it cut itself off before it went very long, but he did emerge very, very wet.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 02:05 AM
#18
I still can't imagine anything happening to an adult, since, as you know, it is only the toilet part that tips back to get brushed and disinfected by the machinery, totally away from any possible human contact. The floor of the main cabin gets a small spray and blow dry, so the man you saw must have been lying on the floor to get wet.
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