Years ago when I was in Paris, there were bathroom "pods" on the streets you paid to use. Are they still there, or have they been removed? My kids want to use one.

They are still there.

But they are technologically improved, probably less "romantic" and much cleaner now.

They are also now free.

Make sure just one kid at a time - I have some recollection of reading that someone was injured trying to 'double' up on the same coin (which is no longer needed)..

The change to free has caused problems IME - seems some folks whole up in there for ages - i think drug addicts may be using them - i've seen blood on the floor. And i don't think they are cleaner from my looks into them

But they have seemed to help the wine bags from urinating all over the streets.

I was just there in May and saw a bunch of the "pods", but the ones that I saw where all boarded up and closed. I never did get to see one that was open.

The doors open automatically after 20 minutes if you don't come out. Otherwise, the homeless would be sleeping in them at night.

20 minutes is plenty of time to do drugs or have sex anyway, for those who are using the toilets for other purposes.

Children under the age of 9 are not supposed to go in by themselves, because they are small enough to 1) do something stupid and 2) get trapped by the cleaning mechanism. There was a child killed in one of them many years ago. She crawled up on the toilet seat, which indicated to the floor sensor that there was no longer anyone in there. These toilets are cleaned by tipping back into the wall like a Murphy bed, where the brushes and disinfectants go to work. As it turned out, the brushes are powerful and potentially lethal for the very small.

Thanks for the info. For some reason, my kids (ages 15 and 20) think it will be interesting to use these. The younger one has always checked out bathrooms werever we go.

I would highly recommend having your own tissue (those little travel packs of moistened kleenex are invaluable).

They are not called bathrooms, but W.C. or toilettes.

My husband had used quite a few, but I have had no need as of yet.

According to him, some are clean and some "not so clean" and one that was quite disgusting. There were also quite a few that were out-of-order.

The younger one has always checked out bathrooms werever we go>

then by all means check out the old Pissoirs - the open-air urinals surrounded by a metal shield that you can peek out while doing your business - their numbers seem to be dwindling but there are still some around - a great photo op of the person peeking out thru the little slits.

Google Paris Pissoirs

Paris Public Toilets or Sanisettes
Not so many decades ago, the phrase "Paris public toilets" evoked images of smelly streetcorner pissoirs, hole-in-the-floor squat toilets at neighborhood ...
europeforvisitors.com/paris/articles/paris-public-toilets.htm

And indeed your son can check out the still present in some public WCs Turkish Toilet two feet slabs on a marble basin and a hole in the floor

though these are being eliminated there are still some around in dumpy cafes and even in one Latin Quarter restaurant i was in recently

During our visit in May, at least half of the Toilettes were out-of-order.

that was my observation last Feb as well

Now that they are free they apparently are not maintained like before perhaps?

my experience since they have been free is that they are NASTY. they don't seem to be cleaned or maintained in any way. use only in emergency...

Interesting (about the lack of maintenance). We have the same "toilettes" in San Francisco --supplied by a French company, J.C. Decaux. I've never been in one and hopefully never will - the concept is just gross to me (but I'm not 9!!). However, they do appear to be well-maintained, at least from the outside. I think they cost 25 cents still. Most of the money is made from the advertising on them, though. They still make me go "eeewww".

There has always been something ironic to me about Paris or the French using the Paris model of street conveniences to market them abroad

the city in Europe that i find the most folks pissing on the sidewalks - see the ubiquitous stream flows that make dark impressions everywhere - marketing toilets around the world.