Public toilets in France and other countries

[speakingwoman]

I have been noticing whilst on holiday how much less segregation there is between m and f toilets in France.
Yesterday I went to the “ladies” and removed my shorts to wash off an ice cream stain only for a man to then pass by.
Today I realised that m and f had separate entrances but common sinks -I could see the urinals.
Don’t know if anyone has insights into various differences in 8nternational attitudes?

When we went to France when I was a kid I was horrified to discover the urinals were open. I walked past one-day on the way to the toilet and my dad was having a wee.
Most campsites in France, and I’ve been to a lot, have one set of toilets and showers for both, plus open urinals for the blokes, or the women with penises… also used to see a lot of blokes openly pissing in the street. Also has anyone come across those toilets that are like a shower pan, but with foot pads? Not very convenient for a woman to use without balancing precariously or getting half undressed. Don’t flush while you’re still standing in the pan thing either or you get wet.
I don’t remember ever seeing unisex toilets in Germany or Holland.

I noticed the loos in the service station in France today were separate male and female.

No toilet seat though, so it's the hover over the horseshoe porcelain manoeuvre.

ive stayed in a lot of campsites in france and very often its unisex toilets and showers

Went to Spain recently and the toilets on the beach front cafe were one door into one room with about five cubicles then a couple of sinks.

I was surprised when a chap came out of the cubicle a few doors down, they must have been unisex.

No urinals, though.

The French seem to have an irrational hatred of loo seats.

I’ve never seen non-segregated toilets, but rarely seen a public loo with a loo seat. I have NO idea why. Other countries manage to have loo seats quite happily.

I guess it’s an improvement on the squat loos though. They are getting rarer and rarer at Aires now.

Well the one at the supermarket was unisex. With a tricky electric lock. Which obviously I failed to use properly. Because I was about to do the hover thing when the loo roll dispenser caught my eye, it looked tricky so I bent over it for a closer look and a man walked in and got an eyeful of my bare bottom. Poor chap, he was hiding behind his wife when I came out and she gave me an outraged look.

French super U loo I should add.

There were public toilets in China (developed, modern city bit) that were the footprint squat type - but with no doors on the cubicles. They had put partition walls between them, but no doors.

They were split m/f though, fwiw.

There are unisex toilets in Dutch campsites too.
Males (cubicles and urinals) on one side and females (cubicles) on the other.

Very civilised.

My memory of French service station loos is that there would be one "proper" loo, a few squatting loos (hellish with dungarees....), segregated M&F though sometimes with communal washbasins - but a ferocious older lady sitting at the door to collect your centimes and woe betide anyone who misbehaved in there...

US loos tend to have huge gaps around the doors, so if you look carefully or just glance in the mirror you can see right into the cubicle. (It must be one of those wierd optical things, because you can only see if you really try or don't think about it at all- if you are just looking normally, you dont' see through the gap)

I've never managed to pee on one of those with the foot plates. How the fuck do you do it without taking one leg completely out of your jeans, which also means you have to remove one shoe?

Plus arthritis of the hip means I can only bend slightly anyway.

The Dutch sometimes have unisex loos, and even if you have male/ female toilets/ changing rooms will wander into those of the opposite sex anyway. I always use the mens in a bar if the ladies is busy. And dads will come into the ladies changing rooms at the pool to chivvy their daughters out. If you want privacy you just use a cubicle - but hardly anyone bothers.

French campsites do have unisex toilets. We have only camped once but I remember the urinals were right by the door and you had to pass them to get to the cubicles and showers.

We've been to France this year and I noticed no toilet seats at the motorway service station and a huge lack of public toilets in Paris. There were also some horrible unisex portaloo things by the Eiffel Tower. We used some unisex toilets in a shopping centre and had to pay one euro each although I think I've also paid in both London and the Hague. We even had to pay to use the loo in McDonalds (and that was unisex too.)

The French seem to have an irrational hatred of loo seats.

No idea if its true but I remarked about the lack of loo seats in the uni I did my erasmus year in and was told by a french person that its generally the union that represents the cleaners that insists on no toilet seats because its makes the toilets easier to clean

Spent some time working in China in my youth and never managed the squatty footplate no-door loos. My Chinese colleagues would all come and watch me struggle and would shriek with amusement as I invariably peed all over myself. (We made our own entertainment in those days)

I go to France every year. I have noticed that several toilets in public buildings have become mixed in the last couple of years - ie individual cubicles but shared hand washing. They look and smell worse as a result

I've been meaning to post these for a while. We went to a camp site in Northern France this year. Showers were mixed. The cubicles were not enclosed. Big gap at the bottom and screen only came up just over head height for a tall man. It was horrible. I felt unsafe every day and I am a big old woman. Most people went to the showers with their men folk, however this wasn't an option for me or a couple of single mums I saw there. I saw several little girls - no older than ten - in the showers on their own. Easy to take photos in there, so I did:

Here's another:

Here's another:

I live in France, French public toilets are generally seatless, which is really annoying. Campsites are a bit of a law unto themselves. My workplace is small but we don't have separate men/women toilets. Cafés and restaurants are often small and only have one toilet.
As this is the feminist board, I will add that it's seen as a pragmatic thing, and I've never heard anybody talk about unisex toilets as anything other than a space or money thing. I don't think that there has been any change recently either.

Cafe's often only have one toilet here too - that's fine as there's no one else in there with you.
Another thing I noticed was when I was trying things on in a shop, there were only skimpy curtains and a man kept wandering in and out 'helping' his wife. I hated it.
I don't know why French women are putting up with it and I certainly don't want to see it happening over here.

I went to a meeting in Poland a couple of years ago at a big conference centre and the toilets were unisex, except I didn't realise it.
Nice toilets, sat in a cubicle when I heard men's voices I panicked that I had gone in the wrong toilets.
Snuck out, and looked at the sign which had male and female symbols on.

@MsMcWoodle that doesn’t sound pleasant at all

I’ve stayed on a lot of French campsites, and whilst the loo blocks have mostly (but not all) been unisex they’ve had solid doors and locks for all the cubicles.

I’m not surprised to find the loo-seat issue is driven by a union. Not surprised at all

I think that the graffiti had a really intimidating effect, so in combination with the insecure cubicles it felt like a dangerous place to be.
I was also horrified by the fact that little girls were seeing this graffiti. We all know that this sort of thing goes on in the gents, but what must young girls think being faced with that?