In Paris and other cities you will see Sanisettes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette
Here's a map of the Paris locations.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer...335121885&z=15

The large department stores have restrooms, sometimes for a 50 cent charge.

Small villages used to have public WCs - usually by the local church but many have closed or if there not always cleaned and may have Vespasiennes or Turkish toilets where you have two slabs for your feet and then squat and thrust!

McDonalds have toilets - many free some charge.

Restaurants, hotel lobbies, libraries, bars/cafes, public parks, museums, train stations, grocery store, tourist office... it's really not that hard.

Toss in that app that was mentioned and you should be OK.

Buy something to eat (now or later) instead of a beverage, it you need to purchase something.

Please write that book! And Madame PiPi is the best title for it ever!

Thanks for so much good info, though I could have done without the mental image of large bottles of yellow water :unamused: I will try offering to pay in a cafe if necessary - if my almost non-existent French allows for it. Glad others are loving the discussion, on a previous trip to Paris I'd read about an art deco toilet which sounded lovely. After much searching we found it and it was CLOSED FOR LUNCH!! I was flabbergasted. And annoyed as I needed to use the damn thing.

For those who have never been to our beautiful country, there are free public toilets - usually clean with paper etc - in just about all small towns. So if you are out for the day, you can easily find somewhere to go. At the beach there are always free toilets and often showers in the more touristy seaside areas. We have great facilities here.

The idea of having to pay for the toilet and also having someone sit inside to collect money is very European and completely foreign to outsiders. I don't mind paying at all, it's just when there aren't any around that I have a problem. And to those who say 'it's not that hard', well, yes it is. Having experienced it firsthand.

Kay

Yes, every little country town, sometimes blink and you will miss it, usually has a rest area with toilets , picnic tables, often play equipment for children and sometimes even a barbeque. When travelling on country roads there is often just a small rest area with toilets and a table . Because we have a lot of drier areas, some of the public toilets along country roads and not in towns are not flushing but rather ' composting toilets' which, if maintained , and they usually are, do not smell and are quite efficient. What an interesting discussion!!!

In our experience--and of necessity I've tracked down restrooms in many tiny villages--just about every village big enough to have a mairie will have a public restroom there or close by. Take your own toilet paper. Be prepared for the worst and maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised.

If you're taking public transportation, you'll probably be in towns rather than villages, and the larger supermarkets will have public restrooms, though not necessarily the small downtown grocery stores. But you definitely can't count on libraries, tourist offices, or small stores to have restrooms.

Have a flattened roll of toilet paper with you, just in case.

"For those who have never been to our beautiful country, there are free public toilets - usually clean with paper etc - in just about all small towns. "

Though you may not have noticed, the same is true all over France. But if you are traveling by public transport you won't likely even find yourself in small towns, which means your chances of finding toilettes are even greater.

on our first visit to France with our kids, we stopped off at an Aire somewhere north of the Loire where I recall that they had ordinary toilets, but a strange hand washing arrangement outside which looked like a horse trough.

Fast forward 20 years and DH and I are driving back towards the channel ferry port on a road I would have sworn I'd never been on before and desperate for the loo we pulled into an aire, and guess what? There was my old friend the horse trough. It all came flooding back.

Do those small villages still have public toilets that are squat toilets?

Several years ago was shocked at Austerlitz station after paying there was just Turkish toilets. Now after renovation gone. Restaurants in Latin Quarter-IME also may have them -always thought they were so crude.

Many campgrounds also have them and yes even those with TP you may want your own TP.

French I know have toliets that often are not that clean and TP like little thin sheets.

Anyway encounter a Turkish squat toilet and where? Several years ago they were very common in village cafes, etc.

"Do those small villages still have public toilets that are squat toilets?"

None of them around here are squat toilets. They are modern and well maintained.

It should be pointed out that there is a difference between the toilets for men and women. Turkish toilets were apparently eliminated for women quite a while ago, but they are alive and well in the men's room. Even in the most modern service stations on the autoroute, you will still find them -- for example, if there are six stalls, 2 will be Turkish toilets and 4 will be toilets as most of us would want them to be. I presume that this is to cater to international truck drivers, many of whom prefer the Turkish version. As for other places, obviously the older the establishment, the more likely that one might find a Turkish toilet. As a child I had to use such facilities, including at my great aunt's apartment in the suburbs of Paris (the toilet was on the landing and not in the apartment). I found it completely horrifying, but frankly when you have to go, you can adapt to anything. If you find yourself in such a place, give it a try. It will not kill you. (However, beware of any objects that might fall out of your pocket, etc.)

Anyone unfamiliar with an Aussie outback long drop toilet

https://flic.kr/p/22WdMKG

we had one of these, a 40C day usually ensures you don't linger.

I can only imagine the spiders that would be lurking in that long drop nightmare!

While on the subject, how would I say in very basic French (because I won't remember anything complicated) "excuse me, are there any public toilets nearby?" or "do you know where the public toilets are?" or something similar.

In a cafe could I just say "toilette, s'il vous plait?".

I want to be polite but know my French is not good and I tend to get mixed up sometimes. Once in France a sentence came out of my mouth in a mix of English, French and Italian. Talk about embarrassing.

Thank you.
Kay

Yes.

Perhaps better, ¨les toilettes?¨ followed by a polite ¨merci¨ when you understand the directions.

There are still plenty of 'hole in the ground' toilets for women in France. Many aires on the motorway have them, which is why we allways stop at petrol stations, where the toilets are nearly allways good and clean (particularly on the toll roads).

In the otherwise chic village of Megeve, most public toilets for women are turkish toilets. The women's toilets near the main ski lift in the center of the village have several stalls - all turkish toilets.

"Est-ce qu'il y a des toilettes publiques près d'ici?"

Note that most of the public toilets I see in small towns and villages are marked W.C., though if they are off a main walking street you may also see a sign saying Toilettes, with an arrow pointing to them.

Australia (and NZ) are wonderful places for those of us needing frequent loo stops. Seems every country town, no matter how small or remote, has easy to find, free, clean, well-maintained loos (sometimes maintained by town volunteers). Where there isn't a plumbed loo, there will usually be a long drop - most of which are considerably more pleasant than those in my home state. Sure beats having to squat behind a shrub and worry about being bitten on the bum by a venomous snake:)

I've only been to France once, years ago, and had the same problem as KayF - unable to find a public toilet and when I did, well, let's just way it was memorable, and not in a good way.

As with everything, finding toilets probably seems easy to those who know where to look, not-so-much for those who don't.