Gite Language Translation
 

S.d.b. avec wc. S d'eau avec wc

Salle de bains avec wc: bathroom with wc.
Salle d'eau avec wc: toilet with sink and wc. (I am not 100% sure about this one, hope some french fodorite might help better)
I tried!

I have checked around and sometimes in the salle d'eau there is also a shower other than the wc. Some other versions have also the bidet.

Yup, "salle d'eau" means that there's a shower as opposed to a bath.

Many thanks to all for taking time to help me out.

Salle d'eau does NOT necessarily mean there is a shower--that is often referred to as SdD--salle de douche. Salle d'eau is more likely to mean that there is a sink and toilet. In many European apartments or homes (like ours) the salle d'eau is a tiny little sink (REALLY tiny) and serves a double purpose of holding the drainage hose from the washing machine. (For example, in our Brussels apartment, the salle d'eau has a small alcove where our washer and dryer are stacked; the washing machine drains in the sink and dryer is unvented, it has a condenser unit that collects the water absorbed from the wet clothes into a pullout drawer that you empty into the sink.)

Along these lines, I have the latest French property catalog from Le Figaro (great for deciding how to spend those lottery millions we plan to win some day...) and the ads clearly refer to SdB for a bathroom with tub and SdD for shower room (in neither case, SdB or SdD, is there any guarantee that there will be a toilet in the room--it may be there or in a separate room). Salle d'eau is used to describe sinks--in American terms, a "salle d'eau avec WC" is basically a powder room. I *guess* that would be cloakroom in Britspeak.

How about these examples?http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/kermeurbra...ion/page2.html

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/295080/favela/salle_deau.htm

http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/jardins_stcyprien/page4.html

http://www.arsmonaco.it/ars/fra/prod/rs29/bagno.htm

http://les.mailleuls.chez.tiscali.fr/villa04.html

http://bruno.ripault.free.fr/maison/salle_deau.htm

I don't doubt that you can find some examples. In my first post, I noted that it does not NECESSARILY mean that a shower room (and probably doesn't), based on our experience property hunting in a French speaking country and from reading hundreds of ads over the years in the leading French property magazines, where salle d'eau avec WC refers to a sink and toilet, not a shower room.
Bottom line: Corky should what they mean for the specific gite(s) in question.

Hi

having rented several times, then searched for and bought a few properties in France (6) Salle d'Eau is a room with sink & shower.
Both Salle de Bains & Salle d'Eau are generally separate from the WC.

Peter
The Languedoc Page
http://tlp.netfirms.com

This original simple question, so I thought, has now become a perlexing linguistic puzzle.But appreciate the input from all in trying to determine what the advertiser is trying to convey to us.Maybe I need to contact the owner and get his take on the matter.

Peter, with all due respect, a salle d'eau CAN be a room with a shower or it can be a lot less. Several years ago, when we were looking to rent an apartment in Paris, we weren't sure what salle d'eau meant, either. Some Parisian friends warned us to be careful as "salle d'eau" is a vague term. Sure enough, in one of the apartments we considered, advertised as having two "salles d'eau", the salle d'eau was nothing more than a sink in each bedroom. In another apartment, advertised as have "salle de bains avec wc separe and salle d'eau", the salle d'eau did indeed have a shower...in the *kitchen*! In our Brussels apartment, the official apartment inventory (a lengthy, formal document that details every little thing about the condition of the apartment), the descriptions include "salle de bains avec WC et bidet" for the master bathroom, "salle de douche" for the shower room and "salle d'eau avec WC/buanderie" for the sink, toilet and laundry alcove.
We've been looking at some properties in Chamonix and the ones with shower rooms are being advertised as having "salle de douche" instead of a salle d'eau.
Whenever there's "wiggle room" in a property description, it's best to ask for more details.

I agree it's more complicated than I thought. Like BTilke, I have spent long hours searching through French property pages, and I think that all we can say for sure is that different people use different terms!!
Indeed, I recently spent a few weeks scouring French property ads for a friend who was looking for a flat with shower rather than bath, and almost invariably, these were listed as having a "salle d'eau", hence my statement above.
Oh the confusion! :-s

Hanl, thanks for the input. In one ad we saw yesterday, it said "salle d'eau avec douchette." I have no idea what a douchette is. A sink with one of those little spray nozzle attachments? A tiny little shower? Who knows...
Corky, if the salle d'eau has a shower, ask for pictures anyway. Some of those showers are miniscule, you can't move once you step in...