Finding public toilets in France?
 

Hi, can anyone help me with finding public toilets in France. We have travelled to France before and know they are sometimes hard to find or non-existent. I'm one of those people constantly needing the loo. We are used to having public toilets everywhere in Australia and (don't laugh) it is worrying me that I will be cross legged and miserable when we go out for the day. I know I can go into a cafe but often I don't want to have another coffee (that caused the problem in the first place!) to use the facilities.

So are there reliable websites that pinpoint where they are, or are they in places I would be unaware of? I know in America we were surprised to find them in supermarkets. We are in the early planning stages but will have about four weeks in September, visiting Paris, parts of Brittany, Normandy and La Rochelle and plan to use public transport. Any help gratefully received!

Kay

You mentioned "we", so I take that you are traveling in a group. All you it takes to use a a cafe bathroom is for one to buy something. The rest can just tag on.
Stations have coin toilets.
Museums always come with free clean toilets. Our cardinal rule is, even if we feel we don't need to use it, never leave a museum without going to toilet before exiting.

We are Australian as well and the roads we travel here are fairly well served with rest areas with toilets and they usually have paper. We have travelled extensively around country France and sometimes toilets are difficult to find. We also follow the policy of using the toilet when at an attraction such as a chateau or abbey etc. The Aires usually have toilets but we have found some of them less than pleasant. We have found that supermarkets often have toilets and we have also often found a public toilet at or near the town car park or near the Hotel de Ville. One of my first purchases is a packet of sachets of tissues and always have one in my bag.
Having re-read your post I now see you are using public transport so my advice is probably not relevant as I am referring more to travelling by car around the countryside and in small towns . We are off to France again in September and visiting some very rural areas so it will be interesting. We always manage in the end . I do remember one stop and my husband looked in at the squat toilet and said 'You can't use that ' . My one word reply was 'Desparate '.
Have a lovely trip.

Greg - thanks. It will just be my husband and me. I agree with you about always using the toilet if there is one available. Even if you don't really need to go :-)

Rhon - thanks, what do you mean by Aires? I have used some truly disgusting toilets (one in Greece comes to mind) when desperate. Squat toilets in Asia too, horrible if you are not used to them.

Kay

Hi KayF,

Will you have a smartphone with you? If so, there are apps you can download to find bathrooms (.... don't ask why I know this ....!!). I actually have two -- WC/Toilets is one, and Toilets Finder is the other. I've used the Toilets Finder in Paris, and it did a good job of getting me to those little pissoirs, which are free, of course.

Have fun as you plan!

s

Aires are the service and rest areas on major roads. We spend a lot of time on lesser roads so sometimes finding a toilet is more of a challenge.

Thanks Swandav, for the apps. I will take my smartphone and research finding a SIM for France (also need it for UK). I thought a pissoir was a urinal? I have seen some men's urinals in Paris that were VERY public. But better than pi**ing in the street which we have also seen.

I often think what do the locals do in these countries? Surely I can't be the only person with the need for frequent loo stops?

Any more tips gratefully received!

Kay

Generally the mairie has a public telephone and toilets, even the "mairie" of the 90 soul hamlet where we had our house had these two items. The quality of the latter item is not guaranteed, and can often be of the footprint type.

I haven´t seen a pissoir on the streets of Paris in years, many years. No need really as there are free sidewalk restrooms all over the city. I am very surprised that anyone would say that public restrooms in Paris are nonexistent because they are everywhere. You must be walking past them not realizing what they are.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b1a909e102.jpg


Secondly, as rhon states, the aires are never far from any location on the autoroutes. Aires always have free restrooms but might also have gas stations, restaurants, playgrounds, or picnic areas. It´s really hard to understand how anyone could drive around France and miss them.

We will be using public transport for our next trip to France, and have usually used public transport so not familiar with roadside stops. I'm glad there will be numerous public loos in Paris because I'm going to need them. Some places we've visited had no public toilets that we could find, and we did search. I'Isle sur la Sorgue stands out in my memory.

Kay

Sarastro's photo is what I meant by "pissoir." They'll always be pissoir to me...

Should add that I've also gone into a cafe and offered 50 cents to use the toilet, and it was fine.

s

This is a pissoir or more accurately, a urinoir. These are hugely different than the toilettes currently on the streets of Paris, notably by the simple fact that urinoirs are for men only.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...864ec099d4.jpg

Urinoir on the streets of Paris

Nevertheless. The "toilets" on the streets of Paris will always be pissoir to me.

s

Pissoir is the word that the Germans use for urinoir/urinal. The French do not use the word pissoir at all, but I presume that just about anybody would understand it. There is a grand total of one of the old classic urinals left in Paris -- across from the exit of the Santé prison. I think they decided to keep it so that people leaving the prison after 20 years would have at least one familiar sight.

That explains why no one could direct me to the canoir.

Other than in Paris, France seems the same as most any other country to me. No, there aren't public toilets around on corners in small towns or anywhere that I've seen, except in some official buildings such as museums, or perhaps in parks.

I haven't been to Australia but can't invision public toilets everywhere, not sure what that means.

I don't have a problem as when I am traveling/sightseeing, I am usually doing SOMETHING each day where there is a toilet, whether it is visiting a museum or official attraction or something like that, and I always do eat lunch, most likely, so you go in the restaurant/cafe where you do that. Not to mention they are in train stations and on trains. All of those places are enough for me as a traveler. Even driving around in rural areas, you must stop sometime to eat or buy gas or something. Oh, they have them in rest stops on major roads, also.

I so love this discussion, because when I first lived in Paris in the 1980s, I swore I was going to write a book on the hundred best bathrooms in Paris! I never did it but the one place I can always count on is a large/chain hotel with a bar, It is usually easy to walk through unnoticed and (now that I am older) has the advantage of usually being on the same level versus most cafes which can have steep stairs to navigate.

And I am a so glad that the tradition of "madame Pipi" who collected money at the door has mostly died out!

I am not sure that the restroom attendant is a thing of the past. I was at les Deux Magots this afternoon and she was there, making sure all is well in the restrooms. Many other old style cafés also have kept the attendants as well as has most of the train stations.

It´s not all a bad thing. Sure it costs a few coins but the restrooms are clean and someone is there to make sure that everything is as it should be.

It still exists in Germany

In Germany the "aires" either don't have loos or they are charged for, as a result the the "air" stinks of pee as the lorry drivers (often from the east of Europe think 75cents too much). You will also see large family size coke bottles full of yellow "water" being dumped out of the trucks at the departure lane out of the aire.

Save a penny and spend a pound I say.