One of the things that has really improved since I first came to Paris in the 70's is the public bathrooms. Back then, 'pissoirs', outdoor urinals, were the preferred venue for Parisian men (I don't know what women did). They were large, round, dark green, steel contraptions not unlike the familiar round advertising locations common now, only larger. Men (up to 10 at a time) would enter and pee against the center wall and it would drain to the sewer. Bathrooms in Cafes were co-ed and featured urinals along one wall and commodes along the other for men and women. Less elegant locations would have neither urinals nor toilets, but rather co-ed 'squatters 'with two raised footprints in the center of a tiled drain.
Today, public bathrooms in Paris are a joy, located in every cafe, restaurant and public facility. There are also high-tech pay toilets located on busy streets. These are well designed commodes that self-clean and disinfect after every use. There's also a mechanism which causes the doors to fly open after a respectable time period. They've been in use for about 5 years and NYC recently agreed to purchase a number of them for use in Manhattan.
As one of his first initiatives, the new Mayor of Paris made all city museums and pay toilets free of charge. This does not include the major museums that are national. To date, we had enjoyed the free museums, but not the toilets. I'm happy to report that they are not to be shunned
- they are clean and well equipped with toilet paper, towels and running water. This is probably more then you ever wanted to know about this topic, but suffice it to say that any remaining hesitations about coming to Paris should now be eliminated.
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