Paris Toilets
 

Okay, this is the strangest question on the forum... Are Paris toilets/ bathrooms co-ed? We are traveling in March with our Mother and she's not too keen on sharing the restroom with men. I'm not sure if someone is pulling a fast one on us, but thought I would put the post out there.

Dixie<BR>I have seen a few which are co ed, but the vast majority I have come across have not been.<BR><BR>Even the co ed ones do have private cubicles, so your mum would just have to shut her eyes walking past those urinals and into a cubicle.<BR><BR>In all seriousness, I don't think you will have a problem, this last trip of 5 days I didn't come across a co ed toilet once, and I ALWAYS stop and use the toilet wherever there is one...

Has anyone warned your mom about the turkish toilets in Paris?

Dixie: You might be surprized where you find them. In resturants they are common. But the places we found them was surprising. Samaritaine, Galleria Lafeyette and the public (very clean) toilet outside and down at Sacre Coeur. Like the other poster wrote there is cubicles. Does anyone remember the days when the urinal was a tiled wall? I might sound like a toliet freak but the sanitary issues in Europe changed more than anything esle in the last 30 years of travel.

Dixie: You might be surprized where you find them. In resturants they are common. But the places we found them was surprising. Samaritaine, Galleria Lafeyette and the public (very clean) toilet outside and down at Sacre Coeur. Like the other poster wrote there is cubicles. Does anyone remember the days when the urinal was a tiled wall? I might sound like a toliet freak but the sanitary issues in Europe changed more than anything esle in the last 30 years of travel.

Dixie: You might be surprized where you find them. In resturants they are common. But the places we found them was surprising. Samaritaine, Galleria Lafeyette and the public (very clean) toilet outside and down at Sacre Coeur. Like the other poster wrote there is cubicles. Does anyone remember the days when the urinal was a tiled wall? I might sound like a toliet freak but the sanitary issues in Europe changed more than anything esle in the last 30 years of travel.

Yes, some toilets in Paris are "co-ed", like the bathroom in your house is "co-ed" (both sexes use it, but not together). In small hotels, cafes and bars there might be one toilet, in a cubicle, that has a locking door. In some cases, there are separate cubicles for men and women, but you share a sink.<BR><BR>If using a toilet after a man has used it upsets your mother, stick to 3* hotels and restaurants recommended by guidebooks like Frommer's and Fodor's. These guides focus mostly on tourist accommodations geared for the average American.

The only place I've seen them where it was a large room with multiple toilets was the large dept. stores, which surprised me, also. I didn't like it, either, it had nothing to do with a man using a toilet before me (I have no problem with individual toilets in museums, cafes), I just didn't like the atmosphere of being around in a bathroom with men standing around, which was sort of an out-of-the-way secluded place. I think there is a big distinction between just a common toilet that everyone uses, after waiting his/her turn (like in cafes, restaurants, even cheap hotels) and a large communal bathroom where men are milling about. Anyway, I have trouble with it also, if it's any consolation, but it not common at all. As for the Turkish toilets, I have only seen one of them in the last 20 years of visiting Paris, that is really unusual and I think people are trying to scare you on that one.

Thanks for the replies. Just wanted to get the facts before departure. Common toilets that are used by everyone taking turns are fine, we don't have a problem with toilets that are shared with men. I guess we were asking about so called "communal" restrooms.

The public toilets on the streets that replaced the old pissoirs are co-ed in the sense that anyone can use them. These are the tan colored stand alone models that open by insertion of a coin and are totally washed down as the door closes. I've never used one but other members of our travel party have and think highly of them. The only place I've seen similar is in St. Francisco on Fisherman's Wharf.

I was surprised to learn the well known polidor has a turkish toilet!

The only times you will run into the Turkish Toilet in Paris are when you most don't want to...like after that extra glass of wine (or 2) you had and didn't bother to check the facilities first...

This is good, but what other places to avoid that have that hole?

Not meaning to sound to naive, what is a "turkish toilet"? You mean the hole in the floor? I found some pretty bad ones in China. Do the toilets have paper or do I need to bring my own? Best things I took to China were individual packs of Kleenex and the hand sanitizer. I guess I just have not heard the phrase "turkish toilet" Enlighten me please.

Gee, I must just be "lucky." I visited Paris for the first time last summer. During my 6-day trip, I encountered turkish toilets in several places. Perhaps it was the type of establishments I was visiting (and, yes, it was often after a few glasses of wine).<BR><BR>I wasn't horrified by them but they certainly aren't easy for women to use.

tp

I live in Europe and was quite supprised by the co-ed toilets. I was in an cafe in Monmartre and it had a urinal and a stall for ladies. It was not a nice sight and I did not know what the ediquette was for using it. I am amazed that this still exists. To be honest it was only a few place but like the others say it's never where you expect it!

You'll notice that the toilets in Galeries Lafayette department store are coed. It's on the 2nd or 3rd floor and it was surprising for us. We expected separate facilities as in the US, but assumed it was coed once we saw both men and women walking out. At least the stalls have long doors, but there is no ventilation at all. And there is an attendant but many people did not bother to leave a tip.

I remember a few instances where the restroom is separated from the dining room in a small restaurant, with a communal sink next to a urinal, and a separate room/stall with a toilet. The room with the sink/urinal was kind of like an ante-room and people could come and go while a man was using the urinal. That said, there was usually a wall or alcove for the urinal so it wasn't quite like a woman could be washing her hands while making eye contact with a man doing his thing.