French Aire toilets

mokryna, the most 'creative' loos I used in China were a long trench. There WERE cubicles but no doors. Whatever. I lost all dignity when I had breast cancer. Not bothered about a few Chinese women/children watching me have a wee.

When I lived in Singapore in the late 60s I encountered quite a few hole in the floor toilets. There was even one in C K Tang on Orchard Road! But remember having to stop at the side of the road once coming back from a visit up-country to Malaysia, and being terrified that a snake was going to come out of the undergrowth and bite me! But it was needs must.

Wide skirts are so much more convenient.

Bluesapphire takes me back to Indonesia and the necessity to visit such loo with no such thing as toilet paper and after rustling round in my bag all I could find was a paper money note Dearest whoopsie I ever had
The toilets in Russia were very strange whilst normal toilets they had a very very stern woman ushering you in you had to give her a tip and you got back one tiny square of loo paper

Good heavens-nasty foreign toilets ?
Come Brexit we can stick with British toilets ??????????because we won be able to afford to travel abroad (and nobody will want to have us anyway)

I don't think I'd be able to manage to use one.
My balance is a awful, and my squatting has never been good.

We travel in France a lot and the best way to avoid these disgusting toilets is to stick to large toll motorways and avoid the smaller non toll roads. Another tip is most small towns do have a public toilet and they are always located next to the church. Also take your own toilet roll/wet wipes as many French toilets do not have any.

We stopped at an Aire this summer where the loo in the parking area was of the hole-in-the-ground variety. Luckily there was also a gas station/shop so while DD stayed put and joined the hole queue, I went on a route march & found a clean, queue less loo with a seat! After camping on a beach in Greece back in the late 60’s in my hippy days, where the hole was overseen by an old woman armed with a small tree trunk which she pounded down the hole after use, I refuse ever to use a hole again. (I used to go in equipped with 2 cigarettes as defence against the flies & stench ?)

After many years of travelling through France I have it off to a fine art, I wear a fullish skirt and remove my pants in the car and take paper and wet wipes in my pocket. Stand with legs apart over the hole and use wet wipes to remove splashes from ankles.
They are probably cleaner than conventional toilets because some cultures insist on standing on the pot with the obvious awful outcome.

I`ve only ever used one of these toilets once. Travelling by coach through France to Spain, in 1984, the toilet on the coach was faulty, so we stopped at a rest area at the side of the motorway. There was a queue a mile long, and everyone returning was chuckling, but wouldn`t tell us why. We soon found out! To be fair, it was reasonably clean and not too smelly, but I wouldn`t like to make a habit of it.
The nicest public toilet I`ve ever used was at Ephesus in Turkey. They were partly underground, spotlessly clean, and smelt of lemons, with the most delicious smelling lemon soap.

I recall the loos in a cafe in Mantua, Lombardy, which had one cubicle with a ‘toilet’ and one cubicle with a ‘hole’.
There was a queue for the ‘toilet’ (with other English women alongside me) and no queue for the ‘hole’.

A woman I judged to be Italian, came into the cloakroom and went into the ‘hole’ cubicle, without hesitation and (presumably) used the facilities.

Afterwards, sitting in the cafe, I noticed she was also there, having a coffee with a companion. I was mesmerised, she was wearing a smartly tailored trouser suit and high heels. I have no idea how she used the ‘hole in the floor’ with such efficiency and aplomb ?

Waves at Maw Broon - yep, this could be a pro brexit thread couldn't it. Of course, our own British toilets are always immaculate, clean and available (not)

When I was 15, I was one of a group of Scottish teenagers visiting France for the first time (it was 1956). We were housed in a boys' Lycée where the only lavatories were holes in the floor. Although we were somewhat non-plussed, in no time, necessity forced us to get used to it. And we did. Were we tougher than our gently raised grandchildren?

Haven't had the pleasure! We only ever stop at the big aires, with food as well as proper facilities.

I'm reminded of my very first trip abroad, French exchange trip at 14, when we were all petrified of ending up in a house with 'bucket and chuck it' loos, or 'Turkish toilets'.

Thank goodness no such thing with my family - but no lock on the bathroom door! And Monsieur once barging in on me in his saggy Y fronts. Luckily I was not in deshabille.....

This thread has had me in hysterics for the wonderful and detailed descriptions of technique. I have used those loos in Italy in the last century but for the most part have avoided them in favour of a quick trip behind a tree. More hygienic and not smelly. And yes, *maw’, “they” probably won’t welcome us to their holes-in-the-ground any more.

Several airports have toilets like that - also include a hand held shower attachment.
I noticed that many Arabic women go into the cubicles in twos - so maybe one hold the clothing out of the way ?

Davidhs

what do you mean by a crone? Do mean someone else's gran?

yep- stop at service stations and not aires.

Silverlining the buckets and hoses are for people who prefer to wash rather than use loo paper. Thats the way they tend to do it over there.

Oh I remember in Asia ,most of the public toilets are the same, disgusting really, supposed to be very hygienic with a little shower to use instead of åaper and flushing. My Husband wondered what had happened to em when I came out with water all over my back, and feet soaking.After that episode we always tried to use toilets in stores,much more my style

These are/were the norm in the Middle East. When we had one in our house my daughter used to take her knickers off outside and very rarely put them back on! Luckily we moved when she was about 4. I vividly remember using one on a moving train! As you sway against the movement of the train the results are not pleasant.
The bucket/ hose is for washing your nether regions after performing. A nice idea in theory but I never mastered it in reality.

all this reminds me of travels in the past - think it was in South America (but might have been China or both) when you were not supposed to put the (used) loo paper down the loo - plumbing couldn't take it. You had to put it in a bucket next to the loo - for some reason I always managed with the first bit but the second bit of loo paper always ended up down the loo....I wonder how many loos I blocked whilst I was travelling?!

Tenerife had an official notice up saying that Brits will be welcome whatever the outcome so head there if you are worried.

Just come back from holiday booked by OH vast majority were Spanish with the usual mix of other nationalities. No one seemed remotely bothered by us apart from the man on the grill who insisted on serving the Spanish first ahead of everyone else.

Just smile and most people smile back.

When my girls were younger we were traveling across France , we stop for a wee stop and I told the girls to go ahead and have a wee . They came back and said there's no toilet only showers . So I went back with them to be met by the hole in the floor . After explaining to them what it was , they refused to use it . So it was legs crossed until the next stop .

Loo paper had to go in the appropriately placed waste paper basket on one of the Greek islands we stayed on. Could have done with some Vick under my nostrils.

We stopped to visit BIL on the way home. No children immaculate house. Half way home I couldn’t remember if I had flushed or binned!