(Yes, it's another post about bodily waste. I never made any claims about highminded content.)
So, funny thing about French bathrooms: they are split in two. This is different from a US-style "powder room" with just a toilet and sink. The French quarantine their toilet into a closet of its own and have a separate room for the sink and tub. Thus, if you have to pee (and you are not a French man), you walk into a room, close the door behind you, and find yourself in a very small space with nothing but a toilet. Since everybody just saw you go into that door, with nothing but a toilet behind it, everybody knows what you are doing. Or at least they can make a pretty good guess from a limited number of options. Bottom line: there's no pretending that you are tweezing your eyebrows, shaving, or making faces at yourself in the mirror. Clearly, you are taking a leak or you are pooping. (If you're a French man, you're definitely pooping.)
What makes this set-up advantageous? Frenchies out there, enlighten me! All I can tell you is that the inside handle of the toilet room door HAS to be germy.
Further, it's a bit odd to be closed in a room with the walls a mere foot or two away and have nothing to look at. Many households try to ameliorate the boredom of pooping while staring at white walls by putting up posters. Even adults with otherwise sophisticatedly decorated houses have paper posters tacked up on the back of their toilet room doors. I couchsurfed with a student in Angers last night who had a map of Europe on the wall. Might as well get a little studying in, no? Others, in addition to the posters and artwork that their small children made ("honey, it's beautiful....we'll hang it right next to the toilet"), have magazine racks and stacks of books. Very practical.
So, funny thing about French bathrooms: they are split in two. This is different from a US-style "powder room" with just a toilet and sink. The French quarantine their toilet into a closet of its own and have a separate room for the sink and tub. Thus, if you have to pee (and you are not a French man), you walk into a room, close the door behind you, and find yourself in a very small space with nothing but a toilet. Since everybody just saw you go into that door, with nothing but a toilet behind it, everybody knows what you are doing. Or at least they can make a pretty good guess from a limited number of options. Bottom line: there's no pretending that you are tweezing your eyebrows, shaving, or making faces at yourself in the mirror. Clearly, you are taking a leak or you are pooping. (If you're a French man, you're definitely pooping.)
What makes this set-up advantageous? Frenchies out there, enlighten me! All I can tell you is that the inside handle of the toilet room door HAS to be germy.
Further, it's a bit odd to be closed in a room with the walls a mere foot or two away and have nothing to look at. Many households try to ameliorate the boredom of pooping while staring at white walls by putting up posters. Even adults with otherwise sophisticatedly decorated houses have paper posters tacked up on the back of their toilet room doors. I couchsurfed with a student in Angers last night who had a map of Europe on the wall. Might as well get a little studying in, no? Others, in addition to the posters and artwork that their small children made ("honey, it's beautiful....we'll hang it right next to the toilet"), have magazine racks and stacks of books. Very practical.
2 comments:
...definitely worth waking up at 3am to read. Huzzah.
-Chris
do you always do that with your pants on? it seems counter-intuitive.
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